Fafo-report 236

Are Hovdenak, Jon Pedersen, Dag H. Tuastad and Elia Zureik

Constructing Order: Palestinian Adaptations to Refugee Life

ISBN 82-7422-202-4
1997 162 p NOK 210,- Order no: 236 Order

Web edition (pdf 2.18M) * More publications on this subject

Constructing Order explores how Palestinian refugees adapt to their situation and how they reconstruct a semblance of order in their lives. In three separate sections, the book focuses on how refugees have adapted to conditions of life in a Gaza refugee camp, labour migration to the Gulf and in returning to the West Bank.

Anthropological and qualitative in nature, the book describes how Palestinians set about constructing their economic, social and cultural adaptations to the changing circumstances in which they live.

Contents

1 Introduction: Migration, homecoming and community organisation
Jon Pedersen

2 On the Gulf road: Palestinian adaptations to labour migration
Are Hovdenak

A model of Palestinian migration to the Gulf
The history of Palestinian Migration to the Gulf
he way to the Gulf
daptation to exclusion
Keeping ties with home
The desire to return
Conclusion

3 The Trek Back Home: Palestinians Returning Home and their Problems of Adaptation
Elia Zureik Findings

Displacement History
The Return Home
Patterns of Adjustment
Summary Profiles of Selected Returnees
Conclusions

4 The Organisation of Camp Life: The Palestinian Refugee Camp of Bureij, Gaza
Dag H. Tuastad

Marriage and kinship in Bureij
Political organisation in Bureij
Economic organisation
Conclusion

References