States of faḍl or stating faḍl: On the value of indebtedness for Iraqi exiles in Jordan

Abstract

A condition of excess characterizes Iraqi exiles' everyday life in Jordan: excesses of waiting and anticipation, bureaucratic work, and aspirations for future benevolent governance. To grapple with this excess, they have had to develop strategies that render their lives in exile more manageable. Despite being hosted as “guests” of the Hashemite monarchy—an ambitious status evoking notions of pan‐Arab solidarity and Arab traditions of hospitality—this status does not guarantee or grant them access to substantive citizenship rights. In light of this, Iraqi exiles who arrived in Jordan following the US‐led invasion of Iraq in 2003 have often found themselves dependent on potentially injurious ways to navigate their presence. One of these strategies are relations and practices of faḍl, a form of exchange governed by a foreclosure of reciprocity and necessity of public recognition. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among what I refer to as the Iraqi exilic milieu in Jordan, this article examines how, in the absence and denial of expected forms of exchange, the circulation of stately faḍl and its cooptation by ordinary people articulate new notions and practices of valuable yet nevertheless wounding citizenship.

Introduction to special issue: Value, values, and anthropology

“…Similarly, Abdulla Majeed (2023) explains how Iraqi migrants in Jordan structure their residency around faḍl, a form of non-reciprocal hospitality, in this case granted by the Jordanian monarchy. Accounting for faḍl is no straightforward endeavor as it simultaneously (1) invokes amicable national relations between Iraq and Jordan; (2) sets up no specific legal guarantees to resources or work for immigrant Iraqis; and (3) leads to modest denials of its need on the part of Iraqis to begin with, thus showing individual Iraqis trying to opt out of faḍl's gravitational pull.…”

“…In taking seriously the affordances that various qualia provide to specific things when they become valued (Graber, 2023); 3. In noting how the relationships that underscore value ascriptions shift when people find themselves relating not to other people but rather to imaginary social totalities such as states or national communities (Majeed, 2023;Phillips, 2023); 4. In appreciating the weird ways that value ascriptions are often sticky despite the best wishes of a given group of people (Majeed, 2023;Phillips, 2023);…”