What Difference do Mayors Make? The Role of Municipal Authorities in Turkey and Lebanon’s Response to Syrian Refugees

Alexander Betts; Fulya MemiŞoĞlu; Ali Ali

doi:10.1093/jrs/feaa011

journal article Mar 30, 2020

What Difference do Mayors Make? The Role of Municipal Authorities in Turkey and Lebanon’s Response to Syrian Refugees

Alexander Betts Fulya MemiŞoĞlu Ali Ali

Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 34 No. 1 pp. 491-519 · Oxford University Press (OUP)

View at Publisher Save 10.1093/jrs/feaa011

Abstract

AbstractWith the majority of refugees now in urban areas, mayors and municipal authorities have been recognized as increasingly important policy actors in the global refugee regime. This trend is acknowledged in the policy literature. However, there has been little systematic academic research exploring the conditions under which mayors make a difference to refugee-policy outcomes. Theoretically, we outline a heuristic framework aimed at disaggregating key variables, including the independent influence of mayors, in shaping municipal-level outcomes. Empirically, the article assesses the role of municipal authorities and mayors in the two most numerically significant host countries for Syrian refugees: Turkey and Lebanon. It comparatively examines variation across six metropolitan municipalities, three from each country: Izmir, Adana and Gaziantep (Turkey), and Qalamoun, Anjar and Zahle (Lebanon). We show that mayors matter because they may mediate the implementation of national policies and because they sometimes adopt supplementary refugee policies and practices at the municipal level, which may be more or less proactive or more or less restrictive than central-government policy.

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References

Details

Published: Mar 30, 2020
Vol/Issue: 34(1)
Pages: 491-519
License: View

Authors

A

Alexander Betts

Department of International Development, Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford, OX1 3TB, UK

F

Fulya MemiŞoĞlu

Department of Political Science and International Relations, Istanbul Yıldız Technical University, 34220 Turkey

A

Ali Ali

Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics, London, UK

Funding

Human Security Division of the Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Cite This Article

Alexander Betts, Fulya MemiŞoĞlu, Ali Ali (2020). What Difference do Mayors Make? The Role of Municipal Authorities in Turkey and Lebanon’s Response to Syrian Refugees. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(1), 491-519. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feaa011

What Difference do Mayors Make? The Role of Municipal Authorities in Turkey and Lebanon’s Response to Syrian Refugees

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