‘Because of the Syrians’ : neoliberalism, refugees, and blame shifting over public services mismanagement in Lebanon

Abstract

This research was grounded in the hypothesis that the Lebanese government promotes a certain narrative to shift the blame away from recurring issues of mismanagement of public services to promote self-beneficial neoliberal practices as solutions. The first part of this paper explores how recurring arguments framed as scientific research have linked refugees to overpopulation and thereby blaming them for resource scarcity as well as environmental degradation. The danger of these negative representations is their continued re-interpretation and ensuing instrumentalization depending on the current social climate, reinforcing negative sentiments through discourse and with social effects through policies. The concept of biopower relates discourse to refugees as the former enables certain treatment of the latter. Through the negative depiction of the Syrians present in Lebanon, the government manages to distance itself from the historical shortages in service provision regarding water, electricity and waste management using them as scapegoats. This leads to the conclusion that the discourses enabled by the presence of the Syrians lead to certain projects benefitting given political actors at the detriment of others. these public infrastructure projects have clear long-lasting effects on the service distribution for the Lebanese population as it increases the already-present social inequalities as well as not leading to suitable solutions to the problems but rather to fulfilling the interests of powerful actors on the national and international level. For the Syrian refugees the social consequences are present in the policies of the state as well as the behavior of the Lebanese population, with the two aspects mutually reinforcing each other.