Irfan, Anne; (2022) Palestine in exile: blurring the boundaries and re-creating the homeland. In: Mayer, Tamar and Tran, Trinh, (eds.) Displacement, Belonging, and Migrant Agency in the Face of Power. Routledge: London, UK.

Text Irfan_AI_Palestine in Exile_v4_clean.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 30 July 2025. Download (266kB)

Abstract

Palestinian displacement has conventionally been exceptionalized within broader studies of migration and refugeehood, often placed in its own separate category of analysis. Such exceptionalism is usually explained by way of the Palestinian refugee crisis’s longevity and politicization, alongside the existence of a distinctive UN regime for Palestinian refugees in the form of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This chapter, however, argues that such exceptionalism is misplaced, that it actually serves to limit understandings of both Palestinian refugee experiences and forced migration in general. In particular, this chapter examines two ways in which the Palestinian refugee crisis challenges paradigmatic binaries around migration. First, Palestinian displacement has been engendered by structural conditions that cannot be reduced to the “push/pull” factors of particular events. Second, Palestinian refugees themselves have challenged the perceived binary between homeland and exile by working to “re-create” Palestine outside its historical borders, most notably in its refugee camps. By examining these challenges to conventional binaries, this chapter invokes Palestinian refugee histories to reconceptualize broader understandings of forced migration.

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