Since 2015, over 5 million refugees from Syria have sought safety and protection in cities, towns and camps across Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Key responders have included local faith communities, whose members have provided material and spiritual support alike to those displaced from Syria, as well as to other communities affected by protracted displacement, including Palestinians, Iraqis, Lebanese, and Kurds: these people and communities, are themselves also often hosts.i From Orthodox churches in Istanbul organising clothes donations for newly arrived Syrians, to Palestinian refugees in Baddawi refugee camp in North Lebanon preparing iftar baskets during Ramadan for camp residents (irrespective of their nationality), the Refugee Hosts project has evidenced the significant role that religion plays in local responses to displacement.

Engaging with local faith communities (LFCs) provides opportunities to:
(i) work sustainably with local communities
(ii) maximise dignity and justice for refugee and local host communities
(iii) build relational responses to displacement that are not about aid alone and do not look only at material outcomes
(iv) build collaborative and participatory responses to displacement in which refugees and local communities have genuine agency in the choices that are made and the solutions that are pursued
(v) to keep psychosocial care and meaning–making on the agenda

However, misunderstandings and challenges continue to limit the ability of secular humanitarian agencies to engage with LFCs effectively and sustainably. The resource outlines the challenges and proposes recommendations.

Faith and Displacement

The Refugee Hosts webpage videos on Faith and Displacement

Faith has emerged throughout the research as a significant motivating factor in responses to displacement, and a key source of assistance and strength for those experiencing displacement. These findings challenge prevailing understandings of faith as a potentially problematic and dividing factor in humanitarian contexts, instead highlighting the many positive roles that faith, faith-based organisations and local faith communities play in displacement affected contexts. Faith traditions and values can become key influencing factors in framing both hostility, but also hospitality, towards displaced communities. Understanding these dynamics, and developing a language for mutual understanding between secular humanitarian actors and faith based responses, arises as a key recommendation of this research, which will be outlined in a forthcoming Religious Literacy Handbook and in our Research.

Refugee Hosts essential reading on Faith and Displacement