Refuge
Volume 28, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 37-48
Refugees from inside the system: Iraqi divorcees in Jordan (Article)
MacDougall S.*
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a
Oxford University, United Kingdom
Abstract
Based on fieldwork with Iraqi women who married and then divorced Jordanian men and are now registered refugees in Jordan, this study explores the relationship between marriage and immigration laws and refugee status for Iraqis in the country. The legal systems effectively fence the divorced women in, with child custody laws preventing them from leaving and citizenship laws preventing them from securing long-term residency. Jordan's citizenship and immigration laws collude with family law traditions that assume women's dependence on their husbands to magnify divorced Iraqi women's social exclusion. As Iraqi refugees extend their stays in the country, Jordan's "guests" and their needs have become part of the domestic social landscape; structural refusal to acknowledge their presence contributes to their isolation and invisibility. This case suggests that citizenship laws that differentiate between men and women create gendered refugees as well as gendered citizens.
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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84872519341&partnerID=40&md5=abe4eb8bf3a594bbc1939afce4a19e4f
ISSN: 02295113
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English