Refugee COVID-19 protocol adherence and NGO staff perceptions: paternalism and power in humanitarian assistance

Journal of International Humanitarian Action

Research Article

Ezgi Karaoglu¹  Stephen Gasteyer¹  Stephanie J. Nawyn¹  Ayat J. Nashwan²  Natalynn Qaji³  Natalie Qaji³ 

[1] Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, Room 317 Berkey Hall, 509 E. Circle Drive, 48824, East Lansing, MI, USA;Department of Sociology, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates;Human Biology and Health Promotions, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA;

关键词: COVID-19;    Paternalism;    Global South Migration;    Humanitarianism;    Attributions;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s41018-023-00141-6

 received in 2022-08-22, accepted in 2023-09-12,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

During the COVID-19 pandemic, humanitarian NGOs have instituted safety protocols intended to reduce the risk of spreading infection during services to refugees. But those protocols are not always followed, and how staff attribute refugee non-adherence reveals underlying power dynamics in humanitarian assistance which can shape how they approach improving adherence in order to enhance effective service provision to the refugees. Using the data from 1466 interviews conducted with 468 different NGO staff in Türkiye, Jordan, and Lebanon, this study exhibits how paternalistic rhetoric operated in humanitarianism during the initial stages of the pandemic. While staff attribute the non-adherence of refugees to essential refugee culture and sometimes “immoral” character, they attribute their own non-adherence to morally neutral situational factors. Some NGO staff even perceived the refugees as incapable of complying with the safety protocols without assistance. While the literature on paternalism focuses on North/South power dynamics between service providers and refugees, our data show that these dynamics also exist in South-South humanitarian interventions where both the service providers and the refugees are from the region and have similar cultural backgrounds.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

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