Statehood, Citizenship, and Refugees: Patterns of Integration and Segregation of Forced Migrants in Lebanon

Scholarly research has shown that between refugees and modern states there is an inherently problematic tension. But the diverse modalities in which this tension unfolds cannot be explained solely by the nature of the modern state. Understanding the historical and social specificity of statehood, herein conceptualized as the state-citizens relation, allows explaining the patterns of integration or segregation which refugees experience in the host country. The study focuses on the analysis of Lebanese statehood and then examines comparatively five cases of refugee populations hosted in this country. For each of these cases it highlights how politicization, religious identity, and social status shape the interaction between statehood and the refugee population. The analysis concludes that not all refugees are the same. Statehood is a key factor influencing how refugees and states interact and therefore explains the variation of patterns of integration or segregation of refugees.