In praise of informality : exploring the implications of the role of host communities in refugee assistance in North Lebanon -

Abstract

This thesis aims to situate the informal assistance afforded by host communities to refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria within a broader framework of humanitarian assistance. The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest humanitarian catastrophe of the century and has flooded Lebanon with refugees numbering roughly a quarter of the population. Lebanese host community support forms a substantial proportion of the assistance given to Syrian refugee populations in North Lebanon, alongside assistance from the UNHCR and other IOs, INGOs and NGOs. By host community assistance I refer to Lebanese individuals hosting people directly in their homes (either family members, prior acquaintances or complete strangers); Lebanese individuals lending an empty ‘home’, or outbuilding to be used by a refugee family without charging rent; Lebanese landlords reducing the rent payment, or accepting long delays in rent payment; Lebanese individuals lending small amounts of money (20,000-50,000LL, or 30-50 USD) to refugees to help them get by in everyday expenses; and Lebanese individuals giving away furniture, clothes, labour and larger amounts of money to Syrian refugee strangers. This thesis will give an overview of the formal response to the refugee crisis, tracing the role played by different humanitarian actors and their coordination within Lebanon. It will then draw on field research conducted in Akkar, North Lebanon, to assess the forms and significance of informal assistance provided by Lebanese individuals, before analysing the relationship between informal and formal assistance. It aims to focus on the micro-level processes of interaction between refugees and their hosts to understand the experience of refugees at localised scales, while reflecting on how tensions within the broader architecture of refugee assistance are experienced by the refugee. It will be argued that, while the UNHCR has increasingly addressed the vulnerability of host communities as the crisis has evolved, the tensions within and between diffe