Climate change and refugee communities in Jordan: critical reflections on neoliberal resilience-building

El-Anis, I ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6918-4544, Al-Hamawi, H ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3164-4706 and Poberezhskaya, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6442-5292, 2025. Climate change and refugee communities in Jordan: critical reflections on neoliberal resilience-building. Migration Studies, 13 (4): mnaf052. ISSN 2049-5838

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Abstract

This article advances resilience theory by examining climate change responses and refugee experiences, and the perspectives of national, international, and refugee stakeholders in Jordan. Addressing climate change is crucial for all communities, particularly vulnerable groups like refugees and displaced persons, yet there are significant gaps in our understanding of how policies are made and implemented, and the performative roles refugees play. Thus, this paper: (1) analyses how different national and international stakeholders view policymaking that relates to refugees and their climate change adaptation and resilience-building needs in Jordan; (2) explores how refugees understand and experience climate change, and how they relate to policymaking and/or policy implementation processes; and (3) considers the extent to which the global tendency towards neoliberal resilience-building in refugee communities takes place in Jordan. We find that the Jordanian government considers refugees when formulating climate change responses. Conversely, international stakeholders adopt a nuanced, neoliberal approach aimed at fostering self-sufficient, resilient refugee agents who can adapt to climate change independently of state and international support. Finally, refugees residing in Jordan experience climate change through heightened vulnerability, insecurity, and exclusion from national response decision-making processes. We conclude that in the case of Jordan, it is ineffectual to adopt the neoliberal ethos underpinning ‘resilient’ refugees, and we call for further critique of the neoliberal resilience framework. Ultimately, we advocate for a post-neoliberal resilience model that recognizes the need for inclusion and integration between stakeholders at different levels to effectively address the climate change challenges faced by refugee communities.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Migration Studies
Creators:	El-Anis, I., Al-Hamawi, H. and Poberezhskaya, M.
Publisher:	Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date:	December 2025
Volume:	13
Number:	4
ISSN:	2049-5838
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1093/migration/mnaf052 DOI 2536760 Other
Rights:	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Migration Studies following peer review. The version of record [insert complete citation information here] is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnaf052
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	26 Nov 2025 14:55
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2025 14:55
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54815

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