The Politics of Temporariness and the Materiality of Refugee Camps

The aim in this chapter is to analyze the temporality of arrival in refugee camps. The prolonged stay of refugees in a number of camps calls into question the widespread notion that refugees’ arrival is bounded in time. It is argued that in many camps, arrival does not end, but evolves in varied forms within the framework of a “lasting temporariness.” Drawing from the case of the Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, the chapter shows that the alternative ways in which “arrival” may be understood are induced by shifting meanings of temporariness; in the camp, it is a field of political struggle in which multiple actors—such as residents, state authorities, international organizations, landowners, and political movements—are involved. Furthermore, conceptions of temporariness impact on, and can be read from, the material interventions which take place in the built environment of camps.