JEOPARDY IN JORDAN, A CASE STUDY OF CHILD REFUGEE WORKERS IN AMMAN

The research investigates the experiences of child refugee workers in Amman, Jordan. It identifies the spatial geographies they inhabit, their past and potential livelihood pathways and their perceptions of their experiences as refugees and child workers. This contributes to literatures on refugees and the informal economy but also to a reappraisal of child refugee work and its policy implications. It hypothesises that the humanitarian approach to child's rights, cemented in policies like the Convention on the Rights of the Child is not entirely appropriate in the context of child refugee workers as it does not account for the multiple vulnerabilities they face, not the positive role of children's work on household economies, skills acquisition and future livelihood pathways.