Local Politics Beyond Borders: The Diffusion of Anti-Syrian Curfews in Lebanon

About this event

The large-scale influx of migrants into a local community, at least in the short term, is often predicted to place pressure on resources, increase competition over employment, and generate scarcities that increase prices. All else being equal, these factors are argued to increase the likelihood of conflict between host and migrant populations. This paper challenges these assumptions through an analysis of migrant and host community dynamics in the context of the Syrian refugee influx in Lebanon, where over one in four residents are now refugees and state capacity remains remarkably weak. Drawing on evidence from 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork, over 120 interviews, and an original dataset of spatial, demo- graphic, electoral, and budgetary data on over 1000 Lebanese municipalities, I argue that the variation in the implementation of municipal curfews targeting Syrians - the most prevalent form of local discriminatory policy - are driven not only by factors related to the presence of Syrians themselves, such as demographic pressure and inter-ethnic dynamics, but also by local electoral competition and the spill-over effect of this competition into neighbouring areas. Contrary to much of the expectations in the literature on host-refugee dynamics and ethnic politics, local responses are driven primarily by local leaders’ need to project a sense of local order to residents. Importantly, these effects extend beyond the boundaries of the locality itself into its proximate neighbouring area. In areas where neighbouring towns and villages have recourse to discriminatory curfews, mayors and municipal leaders face greater pressures to act, and curfews present a highly visible policy through which to alleviate fears and project authority.

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