"May God Bless the Hand that Works": Stories from Displaced Syrian Farmworkers during Covid-19

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The Refugee Labour underLockdown ProjectThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought untold devastation to millionsof lives. But the impacts of COVID-19 are not equally distributed.Marginalised populations, including people of colour, personswith disabilities, indigenous people, the elderly, women andchildren, refugees, and migrants, are more at risk of getting ill,and more vulnerable to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19.Internally and externally displaced Syrians have been deemedparticularly vulnerable during the pandemic. Ten years of conflicthave forcibly displaced 6.2 million Syrians within Syria itself,with another 6.7 million Syrian refugees worldwide. Most of themhave taken refuge in neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, andIraq, countries with their own ongoing economic challenges andfragile healthcare systems. In Middle Eastern host countries thatdo not give Syrians legal protection as “refugees”, lack of accessto formal employment and public services pushes them to work inthe informal sector. In agriculture, jobs as day labourers comewith crowded living conditions, child labour and hypermobilitywithin seasonal migration circuits. Forced Migration Studiesscholars have framed the problem as one of insufficient labourmarket integration in countries with weak economies and ambivalentasylum policies, but they overlook processes of economicglobalisation which have compelled Middle Eastern agriculturalproduction chains to increasingly depend on cheap, exploitablemigrant labour. The problem is not refugees’ economic exclusion,but rather the contentious terms of their inclusion into labourmarkets that need seasonal and mobile workers.As COVID-19 lockdowns throw into disorder traditional modes ofworking around the world, leaving millions unemployed, the“Refugee Labour under Lockdown” project explores how COVID-19related movement restrictions, and disruptions to agriculturalsupply chains and workers’ access to fields and greenhouses, haveaffected the working conditions and livelihoods of displacedSyrians in agriculture in the Middle East and their relationshipswith intermediaries and employers.This project brings together researchers from the University ofEdinburgh’s One Health FIELD Network, Syrian and Jordanianacademics affiliated with the Council for At-Risk Academics, andTurkish researchers from the not-for-profit Development WorkshopCooperative.
TEAM MEMBERSDr Ann-Christin Zuntz, University of Edinburgh (PrincipalInvestigator)Professor Lisa Boden, University of Edinburgh (Co-Investigator)Mackenzie Klema, University of EdinburghDr Shaher Abdullateef, Cara Syria Programme, Academic Centre forDevelopment and Peace StudiesDr Esraa Almashhour, Academic Centre for Development and PeaceStudiesDr Salim Faisal Alnabolsi, Academic Centre for Development andPeace StudiesSophia Neilson, University of EdinburghSinem Sefa Akay, Development Workshop CooperativeBürge Akbulut, Development Workshop CooperativeSelin Ayaeş, Development Workshop CooperativeErtan Karabıyık, Development Workshop Cooperative
Page 1 and 2: بارك الله في اليد ا
Page 3: This research has been funded by th
Page 7 and 8: Participants in this study were rec
Page 9 and 10: Arrows on the map represent displac
Page 11 and 12: Horizontal partnerships& valuing Sy
Page 13 and 14: Si eue hadw.T eae in,us preint, n
Page 15 and 16: Back in Syria, Nabil was anagricult
Page 17 and 18: ريحانAnn remembers the basil,
Page 19 and 20: Nabil tells us he has honeyfor when
Page 21 and 22: Leila’s father can nolonger work
Page 23 and 24: Leila and Muna currently workin gre
Page 25 and 26: When Leila and Muna arrive home at
Page 27 and 28: Adil and his familyfled their home
Page 29 and 30: Karim pays for the minibusthat take
Page 31 and 32: Adil has a good voice, so sometimes
Page 33 and 34: Despite his hard work, Adil worries
Page 35 and 36: Adil has adapted to his new life, b
Page 37 and 38: “We began to build a tent for eve
Page 39 and 40: To manage his workforce, Rafiqalso
Page 41 and 42: Rafiq feels frustrated by the lack
Page 43 and 44: Fadwa used to be a housewifein Syri
Page 45 and 46: In the winter months, Fadwa andher
Page 47 and 48: Fadwa’s husband sits nearbysortin
Page 49 and 50: Fadwa isn’t sure how many more ye
Page 51 and 52: Because of the pandemic, we cannot
Page 53 and 54: Greenhousestoilet“home”satellit
Page 55 and 56:
Ibrahim cannot afford to give all o
Page 57 and 58:
Ahmed and his family migrate regula
Page 59 and 60:
During the citrusharvest,there aren
Page 61 and 62:
* *Some of Ahmed’s co-workers hav
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Despite the hard work,Ahmed and the
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Due to the bombings, Suhair and her
Page 67 and 68:
What pains Suhair most isthat she c
Page 69 and 70:
“I am selling ourpossessions onea
Page 71 and 72:
Finally, Zahid and Aaliyahfound a n
Page 73 and 74:
For their work,Zahid and Aaliyahmak
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In Syria, Faisal studied agricultur
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The COVID-19 pandemic has also brou
Page 79 and 80:
Mohammed and his wife and baby daug
Page 81 and 82:
The stories of Faisal andMohammed i
Page 83 and 84:
Hasan tried to find ajob as a teach
Page 85 and 86:
Hasan works alongside Syrians and L
Page 87 and 88:
Our team asked Hasan about the tran
Page 89 and 90:
For our Syrian colleagues,this rese
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About the one healthfield networkTh
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"May God Bless the Hand that Works": Stories from Displaced Syrian Farmworkers during Covid-19

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