The Information and Research Center – King Hussein Foundation presented Tuesday the findings of a year-long socio economic and legal study into the welfare of the non-Jordanian families of Jordanian women which was conducted as part of a two-year project, funded by the European Delegation in Jordan. The project aims to create awareness of the gender bias that informs the decision to deny automatic long-term residency and civil rights to the families of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians.
The study, which tackles the residency and civil rights, advocates for amending Jordan’s Residency and Foreigners’ Affairs Law Number 1973/24 to allow Jordanian women who marry foreign men automatic long term residency. Article 22 b of the law stipulates that the Minister of Interior Affairs can, upon recommendation from the head of (relevant) department, grant a five-year residency permit to the foreign wife of a Jordanian man. The five year permit covers the minimum period required for a foreign woman (non-Arab) married to a Jordanian to reside in the country before she automatically receives the Jordanian nationality of her husband. An Arab wife of a Jordanian is only required to reside in Jordan for three years before she is granted the nationality. There is, however, no legal allowance for residency for the spouse or children of a Jordanian woman on the strength of their relationship to the Jordanian woman.
Her Excellency European Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, addressed the audience highlighting the important steps that Jordan has taken on board to inject more democracy and good governance in its legislative frameworks the international community’s and the European Union in particular support of the Jordanian government and the steps it is taking within this special circumstances that come hand with the Arab Spring.
“"In the Euro-Mediterranean region the Istanbul-Marrakesh Process is evidence of our continuous efforts to encourage all Governments in the area to fulfill their obligations regarding equality and to foster new policies that would ensure that half of the population is not left behind on political, social, economic and cultural human rights."
IRC Director Nermeen Murad said that from the outset of the project it was evident that the subject of the research was a complex and sensitive issue and more importantly one that directly impacts the fate of thousands of Jordanian families that are caught between their Jordanian social identity and their non-Jordanian nationality.
The IRC study looked at the cost and benefit to the government of extending long term residency permits to these families as well as facilitate a host of public benefits – including education and health care – as well as allow the husbands and children to work in Jordan and have unrestricted ability to own property. Through a calculation of the benefits versus the costs the study determined that the direct financial benefits through proposed permanent residency fees to replace the current annual fees and tax revenues per capita far outweigh expected costs in residence fees, work permits and access to public benefits including health and education. The study calculated the costs of incorporating the estimated population of 60,000 Jordanian women and their foreign families as just below JD 50 million while the direct benefits were calculated at just under JD 60 million. The study also highlighted the indirect economic benefits to the country from additional investment, increased consumption and improved human capital. It concluded that even without considering the indirect benefits, the direct economic benefits outweigh the direct economic costs for the Jordanian government for granting residency and civic rights to children and spouses of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians.
From a socio-economic perspective, the IRC brought attention to important indicators of social exclusion, deprivation and financial damage to these families as a direct result of the instability of their status in the country which legally links their future to the non-Jordanian father’s work status and denies them any rights as the family of the Jordanian woman. Ther “suffering” was seen as a result of structured “deprivations” related to the denial – through legal provisions in different laws - of sustainable employment opportunities, affordable access to education, subsidized health care, suitable housing, ability to travel among other complaints.
Through a new research approach, the IRC conducted research with the children of these marriages through creative methods to gauge the impact of their situation on their identity and sense of belonging. Through the use of structured mind maps children were invited to draw visual categories that define their vision of their family, country, language, religion and belonging. It was clear from this exercise that most of these children felt a sense of loss and confusion over their identity between what they considered their homeland, Jordan, and their country of nationality i.e. their father’s country of origin.
At the conference some of the children who participated in this research spoke of situations that they encountered during their lives in which their identity was challenged and they found upsetting. In an address to the audience a child participant said that fate and destiny made him a product of two countries but he hoped that policy makers and civil society would help change the laws to allow him to find himself and define his identity.
All these themes were picked up and put forward to the audience in an interactive play produced by the King Hussein Foundation’s National Center for Culture and Performing Arts (NCCA) called “Min 7aqqi” – it is my right – in which different sketches showcased some of the issues raised during the study in order to engage the audience in a dialogue over the rights of Jordanian women in general and the gender bias in denying these families stability and residency in Jordan.
Launched in 1996 as part of the National Task Force for Children, the IRC serves as a catalyst for socio-economic transformation through research, information and dissemination of knowledge. The IRC follows a strong professional and organizational ethos in order to become a leading applied research establishment in Jordan and the region for effective socio-economic planning and decision making.