Early marriage/pregnancy among Syrian refugees in Jordan in light of reproductive governance and justice

Since the start of the Syrian refugee crisis, international development agencies and NGO's have attempted to curb the rise of early (underage) marriages among Syrian refugees who are displaced across the borders in Jordan. They aim to address the prevalence of early marriages as well as subsequent underage pregnancies and childbirth. Based on in-depth anthropological research, this article argues that apart of humanitarian concern, involvement with Syrians' underage fertility can be understood against the background of reproductive governance. Interviews with Jordanian health care workers reveal a dominant concern with Syrians' culture. By distinguishing different reproductive cultures, boundaries between both national groups are marked. Syrian women's experiences of perinatal healthcare in Jordan point at the importance of reproductive stigma and morality as tools of governance. These findings support the 'populationism' thesis, which argues that the international paradigm shift from population control to reproductive rights in postcolonial contexts has been incomplete.