Precarious Lives: Status, Vulnerability and the Right to Work for Protection Seekers in Bangladesh and Jordan

Abstract This chapter brings together, and compares, the research findings of two case studies: Jordan and Bangladesh. In exploring refugee status, vulnerability and (working) rights, we examine how refugee protection is allocated in these two states, both of which, as hosts to large numbers of protection seekers, play important roles in the international refugee regime. Jordan and Bangladesh both deal with deeply protracted refugee situations, but neither have formal ties to international refugee law, although they both engage with some of the norms of the Refugee Convention. In both contexts, the rights of refugees are often unclear, and remain perpetually uncertain. The assigning of various labels to them is a politicised process, which varies over time and by nationality, leading…