Palestinian Migration under the occupationComparative study about the residents of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem

NISHIKIDA Aiko, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

HAMANAKA Shingo, Yamagata University

12th International Conference: " Migration and Democracy”, Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines

14 June 2012, Rathaus der Stadt Düdelingen, Luxembourg

Purpose of the study

• To clarify the current situation of the Palestinian migration

• To investigate how their migration is influenced by the Israeli distinctive democracy and its stratified citizenship

• To explore relationship between migration and citizenship under occupation

Democracy and citizenship in Israel

• Independence and democracy declared in 1948

• Original dilemma: “a Jewish and democratic state” derived from Zionism

• More than 1.5 million of non-Jewish residents (25 % of the population)

Overview of the research

• Poll survey conducted in July 211 in cooperation with JMCC (Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre)

• Research fund by KAKENHI, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) No. 23681052 sponsored by the Ministry of Education , Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan

• Representative sample from 18 to 65 years old in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem

Figure 1.Destination of the Palestinian emigration (%)

Palestine Gulf States

Jordan Egypt United State

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

45.0

50.0 44.7

18.0 15.8

9.3

4.3

17.4

38.1

10.1

6.1

15.9

ExperienceDesire

Reasons of migration

• Purpose-based reason• Exodus incurred by Israeli occupation• Daily moves inside the West Bank, Gaza

Strip and Occupied Palestine

• Resource-based reason• Restriction of movement• Economic condition

Table 1. Emigrants by Destination and Reasons (Desire)

Higher Income

SkillDevelop

FamilyNetwork

CulturalSimilarity

EasyImmigre

Palestine ◎ ◎ 〇 ◎ △Gulf States ◎ ◎ 〇 ◎ △Jordan 〇 〇 ◎ ◎ ◎Egypt △ ◎ ◎ ◎ △United States ◎ ◎ △ △ △

(Notes) 　△ : ～ 40%, 〇 :40 ～ 50%, :50%◎ ～

Table 2. Emigrants by Destination and Reasons (Experience)

Higher Income

FamilyNetwork

CulturalSimilarity

PastLiving

Palestine 〇 ◎ ◎ △Gulf States ◎ ◎ 〇 〇Jordan ◎ ◎ ◎ ◎Egypt △ ◎ ◎ ◎United States ◎ ◎ △ △

(Notes) 　△ : ～ 40%, 〇 :40 ～ 50%, :50%◎ ～

Figure 2. ID type of the Palestinians

92.4

6.7

ID type(%)

PalestineJerusalemiteIsraelNo ID

Figure 3. Passport Type of the Palestinians

50.3

15.8

29.7

Passport type(%)

PalestinianJordanianEgyptianIsraeliUSNo Passport

Table 6

Figure 4. Distribution of Stayed Countries by Passport type (%)

No Emigrate More than Once0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

9078.9

21.1

56.5

43.5

Palestinian

Jordanian

χ2=53.237, DF=3, p<.001.

the Kruskal-Wallis Test to reject the null hypothesis that there is no linkage between groups (p<.0001)

Figure 5. Distribution of Stayed Countries by districts

West Bank Gaza Jerusalem50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

95%

100%

77.7 80.9 73.8

16.3 13.9

20.0

6.0 5.3 6.2

Over TwiceOnceNo Emigrate

Stratified citizenship

• Different statuses for migration – result of the stratified citizenship

• Alternative policy for non-Jewish minority in Israel

• Residents of the Occupied Territories and East Jerusalem – non citizens, but with actual citizenship in Israeli political system

Conclusion

• Stratified citizenship reflects Israeli unique democracy

• Difficulty of migration for Palestinians – limited resources

• Palestinians as active migrants – migration as strategy of living

• Citizenship as a divide-and-conquer strategy of minorities