Forced Migration to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: Burden or Boon

The Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture, given by Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Talal on 5 November 2014 at the University of Oxford Examination Schools. The communities comprising the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have a long history as refugee hosts. Currently, 20 per cent of the residents of Jordan are refugees and asylum seekers from all over the world. Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Talal examines the ways in which earlier refugee communities’ experience of displacement itself contributed to their integration within the developing Jordanian state. Princess Basma discusses the ways in which Jordan’s Circassian, Chechen and Armenian communities have negotiated different aspects of their specific identities and integrated in Jordan, considering the role of forced migration itself in creating identities. Jordan’s own experience demonstrates how policies that engage and include refugee communities can have positive outcomes for both sides, creating peaceful and productive coexistence.