PRAXIS Journal: Refugees and the City: How Migration Facilitated Mafraq, Jordan’s Green Transition

By Leen Hayek

Mafraq city is the capital of Jordan’s northeastern Mafraq governorate, which borders Iraq to the east, Syria to the north, and Saudi Arabia to the southeast. Mafraq, Arabic for “crossroad”, remains a key junction point between international borders. Syria’s Jaber border is a mere 20km from Mafraq; the governorate has thus become an important land port with a special connection to Syria. This connection deepened during the Syrian War, when thousands of refugees settled in the city of Mafraq. Already vulnerable, this influx of refugees compounded existing challenges in Mafraq: limited economic prospects, high unemployment, poor infrastructure, and scarce natural resources (primarily water and energy), among others. However, after nearly a decade of Syrian conflict, Mafraq’s capacity-building interventions have led to refugee resettlement success stories; such interventions have facilitated the employment of refugees within Mafraq’s emergent green infrastructure sector.