Interviewers: Farah+ Lillie
Date: October 5, 2017
Location: Irbid
Type: Focus Group Discussion
M.
Zoubi Focus Group
Who/ What/ Where: Adult
males in Irbid – most are employed, in bread-making, volunteering, watch
repair, etc…
Income –
Emotion: Frustration with the time-consuming nature of
trying to generate income.
Emotion: Frustration with not being able to work in your field
Quote: “When I volunteered with UNDP I felt like my
engineering degree was worth something – I remembered that I do know things, I
do have something to offer” –
Value: Importance of meaningful
work
Emotion: Inability to get equivalency of your degrees, no
recognition.
Desire
to start small projects
Story: Requires too much financial investment ($250,000)
to start your own small project, there is no possibility to register, and you
can’t trust Jordanian partners.
Assumption: People in Syrian community believe they need
250,000 JOD to start a business even though the law now says its 0.
Quote: “You start your business, you invest money, and you
invest time, effort – and then what? You can lose everything, you have nothing
stable here – you could be deported”
Value stability because they lack it.
Quote: “It’s hard for our
wives to work because of childcare.”
Stories: There isn’t just a salary difference
between Jordanians and Syrians, but Syrians and others nationalities. Egyptians
work in certain jobs has higher salaries, because they don’t have as much legal
constraints on their work.
Assumption: Migrants like Egyptians who have been
here before, have an easier time being able to work than Syrians.
Quote: “The only jobs people could get work
permits for are things in agriculture, or cleaning. It has nothing to do with
your skills, or what you study.” Construction, food and beverage,
manufacturing, etc… (“Unskilled work”) Value: ambition, learning…
Stories: There was an opportunity to work with UNDP
as engineer trainer in an agriculture project with Jordanian students. The
students ended up opening their own project but the teacher couldn’t be part of
it.
Power-
Complaining- Giving Feedback
Assumption: People seem to think that they have no right to
complain, or that their complaints will have negative consequence.
Story: People are unable to complain, they are never followed up with, and
the complaints are not taken seriously.
Quote: “I called to complain and she told me to come to
Amman to make my complaint”
Quote: “They hung up on me when I called to make a
complaint.”
Quote: “I actually made a complaint and wrote all the details
in person and I was never contacted”
Emotion: Scared to complain because they think that NGOs
will retaliate by not giving aid.
Quote: “You can say that there is trust in NGOs, but it’s
a very hesitant trust, because of what we have seen” Aid trust
Emotion: Hesitant in trusting NGOs because of negative experiences, institutions
(-)
Stories:
In
2014-2015 when Syrians first came a lot of mistakes were made by UNHCR which still
has an impact on people today, creating problems they still face today.
Quote: “When we
call hotlines for assistance we don’t get any answer.”
Mental Health
Quote: “I have psychological
stress from always worrying about how to live, it’s even impacting my
relationship with my wife”
Quote: “The most important thing is psychological
support”
Quote: “I try to get my wife at least to leave the house,
and change atmosphere from the pressure in the house” Depression, isolation
Quote: My relationship with my wife changed we are tensed and stressed. Stressors
of life are causing me to fight with my wife.
Stress – Mental health
Accessing Documentation
/ Lack of Documentation
Story: If you don’t have the MOI card then you have to pay really high amounts for
health care, but people don’t do pay.
There is a delay in getting an MOI care, can’t
complete the registration for
documentation.
Story: Registration is bureaucratic, the documents
requested don’t make sense expired passports aren’t accepted even though
refugees can’t renew. Renewal of documents
not taken into consideration when trying to get documents in Jordan
Stories: For renewing papers, they ask for a rent contract with an official
government signature, but all landlords don’t pay rent taxes to the government
so this signature won’t be possible which makes it a bi barrier to get a new
ID.
Story: There is no central data system for refugees– your
paper can be lost and then you have to start again. No coordination between
official departments, each department considering different document.
Quote: “Right
now my marriage isn’t even recognized in Jordan”
Story: People who left the camps are in the most desperate situation; they can’t
get access to anything.
Story: Staff at NGOs is moody and they put you
in a queue and give you a number, but they don’t consider the number. You go at
6 am, the first number you get is 16 or 18. You can buy to be the first to be
seen in the office. And the coffee stand is where you can buy the first
appointment.
Quote:
“I wrote a complaint but
I know no one is goanna see it.” Inefficient system/ corruption /
complaints not taken into consideration
Quote: “The women
who go dressed up and wearing make-up get seen first, even if you were there
waiting since before the office opened” Preferential treatment at all offices (official or
NGO)
Solution: Women
appear to be solving for accessing aid services by dressing up to appeal to
bureaucrats in office.
Desire “I want my problem solved, I don’t want to just be
given money for documentation, it’s more complicated than that” Corruption in aid services
Story: It takes me one week
to renew my MOI card, and this threatens my job because it isn’t acceptable for
me to leave work for a week.
Accessing
Services
Quote: “People with bachelor
degrees aren’t given any assistance although they are not permitted to work in
their field of study. “
Assumption: No access to basmet 3ein appears to mean any access
to services.
Quote: “You go to the office, and you might be seen or
not, there might be an employee or not – you can wait 4 hours, and you might
have to leave and come back” Bureaucracy
Corruption
in accessing services
Finding aid is difficult,
Not being treated with dignity,
Story: UNHCR has not updated its database on
vulnerable populations since the first year of the war. So now you see the same
families receiving assistance every time. Especially, when other organizations
ask UNHCR for their database. Bad
evaluation of vulnerability, poor aid targeting
Quote: “UNHCR didn’t change the targeting method since
they first started working in the country, when people had nothing” Unfair targeting –
Quote: “I was visited and the person told me ‘how nice
that you have a refrigerator and a fan – you won’t get assistance’.’ I’ve been
here for 5 years, these are basic necessities” Criteria for aid is not understood
Quote: “Health
care access is only given to those who are receiving UNHCR aid or “Basmet
3ein”.”
Story: People don’t know how their information is being
spread, and who has access to it.
Quote:
“When a stranger calls me and asks questions, about how I’m doing, am I
working, about the work permit, I say ‘everything is fine, it’s great, work is
good’ – I don’t know who is calling me or where my information might be going” need for some kind of privacy
Emotion: People are scared to say what papers they have and
what papers they don’t, fear that UNHCR shares information with the
intelligence units
Stories:
There
are people from intelligence inside UNHCR investigating people, asking
sensitive military questions about men’s previous activities in the army.
Emotion: People are afraid of UNHCR.
Stories: People who don’t need the assistance and are
supported by relatives in Emirate receive it, and others that need it don’t
receive it – they come to visit twice per year Corruption
Quotes: “I registered and then followed up 5 times to see
what happened with my case” No information or communication
Stories: “Two people came to every apartment in our
building, and told people that they are registering refugees to travel to
Canada the following day – each one just had to pay 25 JD. Most people paid,
they sold their belongings, they packed their bags, and the following day, the
bus never came to pick them up” People take
advantage of vulnerability
Stories: Families paid up to 5000 JD for
migration, corruption in International
Organization Migration.
Injustice
Quote: “I was put in prison for 6 days, for the theft of a phone that I had
owned”
Desire: “I wish there was a Syrian lawyer, someone who
understands the position that we are in” No support for legal processes – lack of access to quality legal work Assumption:
Most
of the troubles appear to be legal issues.
Safety in
Neighborhood:
Story: Can be deported for nothing three huge families
were deported.
Quote: “It can be 250 people, 90 people, and the smallest
children go to their grandparents.”
Emotion:
Threat of deportation is constant fear.
Story: People come to the attention of the police, and
intelligence from phone calls. So the police show up at people’s houses without
them knowing why.
Story: One man said that when they see police they take a different route.
“I
was told there was an office that would connect you to volunteer opportunities
at UNDP – I found that the ‘office’ would take a commission from people’s
salaries if they got their volunteer role through that office”
Discrimination, impossibility of
integrating “outside the mosque a
car drove up and said – look it’s Syrians, they should be slaughtered”
Education
Emotions: Children lose hope because they are being put in
grades that are lower than where they’re supposed to be. Lack of power,
Stories: They turned
away from schools that are close by, because the schools are full. Lack of access to schools
Quotes/Desire: “I didn’t want my daughter to start to hate
school”
Assumption: Loss of interest in studies because
lack of access, and inappropriate grades children are being placed in
Solution: Families are solving
for bad quality of universities, and lack of access by going back to Syria
where education is free. And often times public is better than private.
Stories: The two shift
schools aren’t safe for kids. In winter they are coming back at 4:00, and its already
dark. They also make children on Saturday clean the schools instead of teaching
them. Safe schools
Stories: Girls are constantly
getting harassed on the way home from school, and in front of school. There is
no kind of protection, and a girl almost got kidnapped in front of the school.
Institution:
Qadisiye
Solution:
People
solved for the lack of protection offered in schools by having girls drop out.
Social Well Being
Emotion “We live in fear. We are always careful every step
we take”
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