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Department of Governmental Studies Political Science C Uppsala University Fall Semester 2018

Because of Palestine

A minor field study on the political participation among Palestinians in Jordan

Author: Julia Sandin Bard Supervisor: Zohreh Khoban Pages: 30 Word Count: 12 548

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1 Introduction 2

1.1 Purpose and Research Question 3

1.2 Background 5

2 Theoretical Framework and Previous studies 6

2.1 Theoretical Framework 6

2.2 Previous Research 7

2.2.1 Brand and Gandolfo on Palestinian identity in Jordan 7

2.2.2 Achilli on Palestinian identity and political participation in Jordan 8 2.2.3 Scuzzarello on dual identification and political participation 9 2.2.4 Klandermans et al. on immigrants’ collective action participation 10

3 Methodology 11

3.1 Semi-structured Interviews 11

3.2 Operationalization 12

3.2.1 Identity 12

3.2.2 Political Participation 13

3.3 Questions, Interviews and Interviewees 14

4 Analysis 1​6

4.1 Identity 17

4.1.1 Dual Identification 17

4.1.2 The Palestinian Identity 18

4.2 Political Participation 2​0

4.2.1 Latent Participation 20

4.2.2 Manifest Participation 24

4.2.2.1 Conventional 24

4.2.2.2 Protest 2​5

5 Discussion and Conclusions 2​6

References 29

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1 Introduction

It may be difficult to find an obvious connection between identity and political participation.

Effective participation is seen as one of the pillars of democracy and is of great importance to the field of political science. Scholars have researched many sources to more or less 1 effective political participation and one of these sources is identity. Identity is a well studied subject in the field of political science, there has been research on different forms, among them group identity , identity construction , and social identity . Previous research shows that2 3 4 identification with a group can be crucial concerning political action or non-action. What 5 people see as their interest is often dependant on how they think about the identity of their community. If the sense of a common identity is weak within a community it will be more difficult to act collectively, i.e. the identity can have a large effect on the political participation or the political outcome. 6

The identity of a population or a community can be more or less visible. Jordan is a country where a large part of the population, the Jordanian citizens, have a Palestinian origin. The Palestinian identity among this part of the population is prominent even in the eyes of a visitor. Whenever you ask people where they are from they make sure you are aware of whether they are Jordanian or Palestinian. Most of the ​Palestinian Jordanians even specify7 which city or part of Palestine their family is from.

Jordan lacks a certain degree of democracy, nevertheless it is important to study the political participation among the citizens. According to the democracy index, run by Freedom House, Jordan is a partly free country, measured out of the three categories “Free”, “Partly free” and

“Not free”. The voting turnout in Jordan has historically been low, the latest election was in8 2017 with a voting turnout of 31,7% out of 4,1 million eligible voters. Since Jordan is 9 categorized as a partly free country, that lacks a certain level of democracy, there is an importance in studying the lack of effective participation. The political participation is important in means of consolidating a democracy, to activate a process of democratization or to resist a dictatorship or an authoritarian rule. 10

1 Dahl, Robert. ​Democracy and its critics,​ 1989, 109.

2​De Weerd, Marga, and Klandermans, Bert. “Group Identification and Social Protest: Farmers’ Protest in the Netherlands”, 1999. Dovidio, John, Gaertner, Samuel, and Saguy, Tamar. “‘Another View of ‘We’: Majority and Minority Group Perspectives on a Common Ingroup Identities”, 2007.

3​Hopkins, Nick, and Kahani-Hopkins, Vered.” Identity Construction and British Muslims’ Political Activity:

Beyond Rational Actor Theory”, 2004.

4​Huddy, Leonie. “From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory”, 2001.

5​Scuzzarello, Sarah. “Political Participation and dual identification among migrants”, 2015, 1217.

6​Carens, Joseph H. ​Culture, Citizenship, and Community: A Contextual Exploration of Justice as Evenhandedness​, 2000, 171-172.

7​Jordanian citizens with Palestinian origin, this wording will be further explained in a later section.

8 Freedom House. “Jordan”, Last updated 2018.

9​European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity. “First results Jordan elections announced after unexpected voter turnout”, Last updated 2017-08-16.

10​Inglehart, Ronald and Welzel, Christian. “The Role of Ordinary People in Democratization”, 2008.

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1.1 Purpose and Research Question

This study aims to answer how the identity takes form among young adults with a Palestinian background living in Jordan and furthermore what effect this identity, or different forms thereof, can have on the attitude towards political participation in Jordan among these youths.

The demographics of Jordan is not completely clear since the official numbers name 98% of the population as Arabs and the remaining 2% as Circassians or Armenians.11 The demographics could be more specified into different religious, ethno-nationalistic and social groups. These groups consists of Christians, Muslims, Palestinians, Iraqis, Jordanians,​ bedouin tribes and refugees among others.

Since 1948 Jordan is home to a large number of Palestinian refugees. Regarding different definitions of Palestinians and according to different sources, the estimated size of the Palestinian diaspora is ranging from 30%, and upwards, some sources mentioning more than 50%, of the total inhabitants of Jordan. Most of the refugees have acquired a full Jordanian 12 citizenship , questioning the narrative of “refugees”. 13

What scholars often remark is the distinct division between, who they call, the Transjordanians​​ or ​Jordanians and the ​​Palestinian Jordanians​​. The Transjordanians are the descendants of the initial inhabitants of Transjordan, founded in 1921, later Jordan. In this thesis this group will be referred to as simply Jordanians. Palestinian Jordanians are the descendants of the Palestinians who fled or were expelled from the parts of Palestine that became Israel in 1948 or were later occupied by Israel. This division, between the Jordanians and the Palestinian Jordanians, is visible in today’s political system which tends to benefit Jordanians and especially overrepresent rural Jordanians. 14

The case of the Palestinian diaspora in Jordan is a non typical case, which makes it interesting and substantial to study closer. The uniqueness of the case is the size of the Palestinian diaspora in Jordan, it constitutes a considerable part of the inhabitants in Jordan.

Other unique factors are the time that has passed since the migration, the conflict causing the migration is still a current conflict after almost 70 years, and that the Palestinians in Jordan have migrated from one developing country to another developing country. Notable is also the closeness to Palestine, i ​t is possible to see the Palestinian lands from Jordan, making the homeland remarkably present. These factors are of interest since they can widen our understanding of political participation and political action in a diaspora.

11 Index Mundi. “Jordan Ethnic groups”, Last updated 2018-01-20.

12 Ramahi, Sawsan. ​Palestinians & Jordanian citizenship​, 2015, 5.

13 UNRWA. “Where We Work: Jordan”, Last updated 2018.

14 Nanes, Stefanie. “Choice, Loyalty and the Melting Pot: Citizenship and National Identity in Jordan”, 2008.

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In previous research the focus of identity in migrant groups is often linked to religion, culture and language , in this case there is another unique element in the case of the Palestinian15 diaspora in Jordan. Most of the people in Jordan are Muslim , the official language is Arabic, 16 most people in Jordan share the Arab identity and the Palestinian culture and the Jordanian culture are not remarkably different. The only distinction is the “Palestinianness” and a form of politicized identity, since the conflict causing the migration is still on-going. The previous research on Palestinians in Jordan have targeted the distinctions of the Palestinian community and the Jordanian community in Jordan, the Palestinian identity, the Jordanian identity and furthermore a hybrid identity, a so-called Palestinian-Jordanian identity. Additional studies 17 have been made on the supposed disengagement from politics among Palestinians in Jordan 18 and the tensions between citizenship and national identity. Scholars have asked themselves19 how this politicized identity among a remarkable part of the inhabitants affect the political activities of Jordan.

This study will focus on the possibly dual identification or lack thereof and how this identification affects the attitude towards political participation, since research shows that identification with a group motivates peoples’ participation in political action. This study 20 will be based on interviews with youths in Amman, regarding their own view on their identity and their thoughts on political participation in Jordan.

The research question in this study is: ​​How does the identity among second or later generations of Palestinians in Jordan affect their attitude towards political participation?

Previous studies have focused on dual identification and voting in northern European countries , identity, citizenship, and the political community or immigrants’ participation in21 22 collective action. This study differs by studying the dual identification among immigrants in23 a developing country and the effect of the identification on different forms of political participation. The second and later generations within the Palestinian diaspora in Jordan were born in Jordan and are probably more integrated into the Jordanian society than the first generation. The identity among the second or later generations of Palestinians is not affected by memories of the homeland but rather by a maintenance of a Palestinian identity, since they are far from the actual migration in time.

15 Scuzzarello, 2015.

16 Index Mundi. “Jordan Religions”, Last updated 2018-01-20.

17 Gandolfo, Luisa. ​Palestinians in Jordan: The Politics of Identity​, 2012. Brand, Laurie A. ​Palestinians and Jordanians: A Crisis of Identity​, 1995.

18 Achilli, Luigi. “Disengagement from politics”, 2014.

19​Nanes, 2008.

20 Scuzzarello, 2015, 1217.

21​Scuzzarello, 2015.

22​Carens, 2000.

23​Klandermans, Bert, van der Toorn, Jojanneke and van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien. “Embeddedness and Identity:

How Immigrants Turn Grievances into Action”, 2008.

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1.2 Background

The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan became independent on may 25 in 1946. The following year The United Nations divided the neighboring state of Palestine between the Jewish and the Palestinian population, according to their Partition Plan, causing people to flee from Palestinian towns and villages.24 In 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank. The indigenous Transjordanian population were estimated to 450 000 people in 1948. By 1950, with the annexation of the West Bank, the population of Jordan increased with 900 000 people (among whom the estimated number of refugees were 450 000 people). Luisa Gandolfo writes that:

More advanced in terms of education, healthcare, employment, trade unions and newspapers, the Palestinian population contrasted with the predominantly nomadic, semi-nomadic, and sedentary Bedouin tribes. [...] Guided by Western political ideologies, the political identity of the Palestinians was conducive to a reluctance to integrate into the Jordanian system and concepts of trade unionism and democracy rendered them critical of a monarchy that relied on the support of tribes and the military as a source of power. 25

In 1949 all residents on the West Bank and all refugees on the West Bank and East Bank in Jordan were granted Jordanian nationality, i.e. Palestinians in Jordan have had Jordanian citizenship since 1949. The Jordanian passport made it possible for the Palestinian Jordanians to work and study abroad. The Jordanian army and bureaucracy expanded and many of the Palestinian Jordanians served in Chamber of Deputies, the army and the governmental institutions. 26

In 1967 Jordan lost the West Bank, but the Jordanian government continued to pay salary to civil employees in the West Bank. Even though the government of Jordan intended to integrate the Palestinian Jordanians they also reserved the higher positions in the military and security apparatus for “Transjordanians”. In 1970-1971 tensions resulted in civil strifes27 between the Jordanian regime and Palestinian militias. Stefanie Nanes argues that the civil strifes:

Marks a major turning point for Jordan [...] the inclusive policies weakened, such that the government today is seen by Jordanians of both origins as the exclusive preserve of Transjordanians. State policy of excluding Palestinian Jordanians from public life created the domestic context for the rise of Transjordanian nationalism. [...] eager to distinguish the (Trans)jordanian nation from both the larger Arab nation and its Palestinian ‘family member’. Now it is the East Bank tribes that are the primary foundation for Jordanian identity. 28

24​Gandolfo, 2012, 2.

25​Ibid, 2.

26​Nanes, 2008, 90.

27​Ibid, 90.

28​Nanes, 2008, 91.

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Jordan kept its claims to be a representative of the West Bank and the Palestinian people, even despite the Rabat Resolution in 1974 declaring PLO the sole representative of the Palestinian people. In 1988 Jordan ultimately abandoned its claims. In 1994 Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in the aftermaths of the Oslo Accords signed in 1993.

The regime of Jordan has a history of using reforms and political liberalization to calm riots and protests. In 1989 inflation and raised prices of petrol sparked riots in the south of Jordan which were calmed by political liberalization. During the Arab Spring fairly calm protests emerged in Jordan and the regime handled the situation by implementing reforms and meeting some of the demands from the people. This made Jordan a “stable oasis” in the Arab world during and after the Arab Spring. During the time of the interviews, in the last week of May29 2018, demonstrations and protests were initiated around Jordan, concentrated in Amman. The reason for the demonstrations and protests was a law regarding an increase of the income tax.

Already experiencing an incredibly hard economic situation people took to the streets to show their discontent. King Abdullah of Jordan removed the Prime minister Hani Mulki from his post and trusted the new Prime minister Omar Razzaz to form a new government which eased the protests.

Even though most Palestinians in Jordan have a Jordanian citizenship, there is a widespread state discrimination. The electoral laws are biased to overrepresent the rural Jordanians and among them is the fear of equality since this would threaten their power. All levels of state bureaucracy, the army, the security services and even low levels of civil servants are dominated by Jordanians. The private sector, on the other hand, is dominated by the Palestinian Jordanians. 30

2 Theoretical Framework and Previous studies

2.1 Theoretical Framework

The relationship between identity and political participation is a broad and well-studied topic in political science. When it comes to the study of multiple identities, an influential scholar is Joseph H. Carens. In his book ​Culture, Citizenship, and Community: A Contextual Exploration of Justice as Evenhandedness Carens explores the relationship between citizenship and state with regards to membership and identity in three dimensions: the legal, the psychological and the political. The analysis in this thesis will mainly focus on the psychological and political dimensions.

Carens argues that you have to have a sense of emotional attachment, identity and loyalty to feel that you belong to a political community. He says that “It is expected, both empirically 31 and normatively, that people will feel a strong sense of emotional identification with, and

29​Tobin, Sarah A. “Jordan’s Arab Spring: The Middle Class and Anti-Revolution”, 2012.

30​Nanes, 2008, 92-93.

31​Carens, 2000, 166.

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only with, one political community, namely, the state in which they possess legal citizenship”.32​But concerning immigrants the expectations may differ: “​Immigrants and their descendants often feel a sense of loyalty and attachment to the country of origin, regardless of whether they retain legal standing as citizens there”. This would mean that Palestinians with 33 a Jordanian citizenship can have a strong sense of emotional identification with Jordan and therefore also feel a belonging to the political community in Jordan because of their citizenship. But they can also feel loyalty and attachment to Palestine, the country of origin.

Carens means that you can think of yourself and identify as a citizen of a place without feeling an attachment to the political community and that people may have other important 34 forms of collective identity besides citizenship. 35

If you, as an immigrant, are attached to both the country in which you possess citizenship and also feel attached to your country of origin you have a dual identification. Carens says about the possibility of dual identification that “people who hold more than one citizenship are likely to have dual or multiple loyalties, identities, and attachments”. Carens says that these 36 dual loyalties, identities, and attachments may influence the political ideas and activities among these citizens.37 ​He says that “​what people regard as their interests often depends on how they think of themselves and on how they think about the identity of their community”. 38 In this study I will not discuss the case of dual citizenship but rather the possibility and political consequences of dual identifications.

Carens theory on identity and political participation is the basic idea from which I proceed in this study. The idea is that dual or multiple identifications occur and that these identifications can arise from citizenship in a country, attachment to a country of origin etc.. He also establishes that your identity or identities make you feel that you belong to a political community, which furthermore can determine your political actions. 39

2.2 Previous Research

2.2.1 Brand and Gandolfo on Palestinian identity in Jordan

Laurie Brand ​Palestinian and Jordanians: A Crisis of Identity​ (1995)

Brand discusses the Palestinian identity and the Jordanian identity and how they relate to one another. The Palestinian identity is characterized by an attachment to their village or town of origin, the loss of homeland, and the injustice they experience. Brand has divided Palestinians into four groups; Refugee camp dwellers, the palestinian middle class, Palestinians who have achieved a notable success in business, and the Jordanian Palestinians who went to the Gulf

32​Carens, 2000, 166.

33​Ibid, 167.

34​Ibid, 168.

35​Ibid, 166.

36​Ibid, 166

37​Ibid, 166.

38​Ibid, 171.

39​Ibid, 167.

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oil states for work. Thereafter follows an analysis of the identity of each of these groups, focusing on questions of degrees of Palestinian identity, hostility or lack of hostility towards the Jordanians, the state, or the Jordanian identity.

The Jordanian identity is characterized by the tribes and the close bonds between Jordanians and the state apparatus, mainly the security services and the military. The state’s version of Jordanian identity comprises four sides; association with the monarchy, commitment to and expression of arabism, commitment to Palestine and the unity of the two people. The regime has since the 1950s put efforts into creating a “hybrid identity” combining the Palestinians and the Jordanians. Both groups have resisted this combined identity.

Luisa Gandolfo ​Palestinians in Jordan​ (2012)

Gandolfo discusses the Palestinian identity relative to the Jordanian identity. She introduces a hybrid identity, called the Palestinian-Jordanian identity. Gandolfo relates the question of identity to whom you are loyal. She uses the terms ​al-qawmiyya (Arab nationalism) and al-wataniyya (state sovereignty). She defines Palestinian identity as dominated by al-qawmiyya with regards to the language and historical experiences uniting the Palestinians.

The Jordanian identity, however, is mainly dominated by al-wataniyya. Consequently the hybrid Palestinian-Jordanian identity is defined as embracing both al-qawmiyya and al-wataniyya. She means that this hybrid identity enables Palestinians to long for Palestinian statehood while at the same time belong to Jordan. 40

Gandolfo stresses the importance of tribes and tribalism to the Jordanian identity and their connection to the land, “the ethnic Jordanian populace as the host, owners and leaders of the Kingdom”. She describes the way of maintaining a Palestinian identity in the diaspora41 through education, cultural traditions and community activities. The Palestinian diaspora is divided into two categories, those of the inside and the refugees. Gandolfo also discusses the expression of Palestinian identity, in football, in clothing and in the Palestinian narrative.

2.2.2 Achilli on Palestinian identity and political participation in Jordan

Luigi Achilli​Disengagement from Politics: Nationalism, political identity, and the everyday in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan​ (2014)

Achilli discusses the lack of political participation in the Palestinian refugee camp, al-Weihdat, in the outskirts of Amman. He writes about the ambiguous desire to live as both a Palestinian refugee and a Jordanian citizen. Achilli proceeds from the assertion that Palestinians in Jordan lack political participation. He argues that there is a distaste for ‘the political’ and politics in the camp and that this distaste is linked to national identity. The 42 result of this distaste is, according to Achilli, that citizens of Transjordanian origin are twice

40​Gandolfo, 2012, 80.

41​Ibid, 85.

42​Achilli, 2014, 241.

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as likely to vote than the citizens of Palestinian origin. Achilli further argues that there are 43 tensions between:

‘refugee-ness’ and ‘citizenship,’ between ‘Palestinian-ness’ and ‘Jordanian-ness,’ and between the effort of living an ordinary life in the context of integration in Jordan and the nationalistic struggles of an exiled and marginalized community [...] Engaging in politics is as though camp dwellers are constantly asked to whom they pledge allegiance – the Jordanian state or Palestinian nationalism?44

According to Achilli, the camp dwellers are unwilling to take a firm stand either as a Jordanian citizen or as a Palestinian refugee. He introduces the “hyphened national identity”, Jordanian-Palestinian, combining a socioeconomic integration in Jordan and a cultural authenticity as a Palestinian refugee.

An additional term introduced by Achilli is ‘the ordinary’ - the refusal to play the games of politics. Achilli argues that in the refugee camp, the people are more concerned with working and supporting their family, the ordinary, than “wasting time” on politics. But as his analysis shows, ‘the ordinary’ can not fully suspend ‘the political’ which he shows in the example of a football match exceeding into celebrations in the refugee camp, further exceeding into a street riot with a crowd chanting slogans against the government. Achilli highlights the indefinable division between what is political and what is not political.

2.2.3 Scuzzarello on dual identification and political participation

In ​Political participation and dual identification among migrants (2015) Sarah Scuzzarello has researched perceived identification and political participation among migrant groups in Sweden and the UK. She is integrating political opportunity structures and the role of collective identifications for political mobilization. Scuzzarello argues that the political opportunity structures can explain the criteria which shape migrant political participation.

The role of intersecting identifications will on the other hand explain if migrants feel part of the society they live in and if they therefore feel entitled to become politically involved. 45

The conclusion of Scuzzarello is that political engagement in a country requires identification as a citizen of this country: “Identification with a group predicts willingness to participate in collective action on behalf of that movement”.46 Scuzzarello’s research shows that identification is a significant factor in migrants’ attitude towards political participation and in the decision whether to participate or not. The stronger a migrant’s sense of belonging to the 47 recipient country the more likely he or she is to feel entitled to the rights and duties as other citizens, i.e. engage in politics. Through developing a 48 ​dual identification​, with both their

43​Achilli, 2014, 242​.

44​Ibid, 242.

45​Scuzzarello, 2015, 1218.

46​Ibid, 1217.

47​Ibid, 1227.

48​Ibid, 1218.

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in-group and the majority society, migrants get this sense of entitlement of their rights which make them more likely to voice their political opinions. The ones who do not identify with the recipient society do not participate in conventional politics there either. 49

The migrants have to be able to create a superordinate social identity with the recipient country while maintaining a distinctive group identity. This identification has to be validated by the majority of society. If they are seen as only immigrants, it is hard for them to identify with the major society or as a part of the major society. Referring to political opportunity 50 structure Scuzzarello argues that although “favourable local and national structures of opportunities are necessary to enable migrants to vote, they alone are not enough”. Her 51 research shows that different groups of immigrants participate differently in local elections despite the municipality providing the same opportunities to participate in the elections to the immigrant groups in the study. An identification with the wider polity is what makes the 52 immigrants more amenable to participate politically. And the identification is depending, to a certain degree, on validation from the major society. The validation has to regard both the group’s identification as a minority but also as part of the superordinate entity. A lack of recognition and validation on peoples’ collective identifications can make them less likely to participate in the public sphere and voice their opinions. 53

In my study Scuzzarello’s findings would mean that participants with a dual identification with both Palestine and Jordan should have a sense of entitlement of their rights and be more probable to participate in politics. If they do not identify with Jordan they do not participate in conventional politics.

Scuzzarello limits her analysis to “conventional political participation” and more specifically to voting. This study will not limit the analysis to conventional political participation, but also observe different kinds of political participation. As mentioned before, Jordan has experienced a low voting turnout in the national elections. A low voting turnout does not necessarily imply a low turnout in other forms of participation. The integration of a typology on different forms of political participation could add a new dimension to Scuzzarello’s theory. Joakim Ekman and Erik Amnå have studied forms of political participation and divided participation into two forms, latent and manifest participation, which will be further explained subsequently.

2.2.4 Klandermans et al. on immigrants’ collective action participation

Bert Klandermans, Jojanneke van der Toorn and Jacquelien van Stekelenburg​Embeddedness and Identity: How Immigrants Turn Grievances into Action​. Klandermans et al. investigate why immigrants choose to either participate or refrain from participation in collective action.

49​Scuzzarello, 2015, 1227.

50​Ibid, 1229.

51​Ibid, 1229.

52​Ibid, 1229​.

53​Ibid, 1229.

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They seek to explain immigrants’ collective action participation by means of five factors:

grievances, efficacy, collective identity, emotions and social embeddedness. They find that ethnic identification is much stronger than national identification. But they point out that 54 identification with a subordinate entity (the ethnic identity) does not exclude identification with a superordinate entity (national identity). You can have a dual identification and at the 55 same time have a stronger ethnic identification than national identification. Klandermans et al. conclude that ethnic identity correlates negatively to protest participation and that respondents who identified more with their ethnic group participated less in collective action.

The conclusion is also that “respondents who displayed a dual identity judged the way the

56

government of the country of residence treated them – individually and as a group – as more fair”. They also find that perceived unfairness is positively correlated with collective action57 participation.58 They say that perceived unfairness particularly influences political participation among immigrants who display a dual identity. 59

In this study this would mean that participants who identify more with Palestine will participate less in protest participation. We should find that the Palestinian identity is stronger than the Jordanian identification. We might find that the Palestinian identity is part of a dual identification and that the participants who display a dual identification also judge that the Jordanian government treats them fair. The participants who do not display a dual identification are more likely to perceive unfairness.

3 Methodology

3.1 Semi-structured interviews

To answer the research question a number of semi-structured interviews were carried out.

The purpose is to gain more understanding of Palestinians’ identity and political participation in Jordan, in particular, and migrants’ political participation, in general. With semi-structured interviews it is possible to find mechanisms and to see ​why some conditions arise. This may make it possible for us to see mechanisms that can be useful in other cases regarding migration and political participation. This method is applicable when you want to create a60 basis for a more thorough understanding of a phenomenon. 61

Another advantage of using semi-structured interviews is that you can get an understanding of how some people reason out of a small number of interviews. The form is useful when asking about peoples’ views on something since it is adaptable and you can ask questions according to how the last question was answered. The situation is also similar to an everyday

54​Klandermans et al., 2008, 999.

55​Ibid, 995.

56​Ibid, 1002-1003.

57​Ibid, 1000.

58​Ibid, 1001.

59​Ibid, 1008.

60​Holme, Idag Magne and Krohn Solvang, Bernt. ​Forskningsmetodik​, 1997, 79-82.

61​Ibid, 101.

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situation which makes the interviewer direct the conversation less than in more structured forms of interviews. 62

3.2 Operationalization

The operationalizations of this study are made to secure that I analyze what I intend to analyze with my question. The two central phenomena in this study is identity and political participation. In this chapter I intend to define the terms and explain how I will analyze the material with regard to the two phenomena.

3.2.1 Identity

Identity in this thesis refers to what you yourself identify as. It is possible to identify yourself with different groups, for example is Scuzzarello’s research on so-called ​dual identifications where people identify with two groups.

A dual identification requires that individuals see themselves as members of different groups and at the same time part of the same superordinate entity. For instance, migrants could be considered holding a dual identification if they were able to identify with their national group [...] as well as feeling part of the wider national polity [...]. To hold a ‘dual identity’ does not mean that identities are two dimensional and mutually exclusive.63

Scuzzarello points out that defining identity only with ‘racial’ group, ethnicity or nationality does not account for “how migrants construe their identities in relation to their in-group and the recipient society, so that they can formulate their perceived inclusion in or exclusion from the nation”. Scuzzarello also argues that the dual identification needs to be validated by the64 wider society and needs to be a result of both self-identification and this validation. The validation should come from “fellow citizens and from institutions and derives in part from the national discursive structures of opportunities that define ‘civic’ or ‘ethnic’ conceptions of belonging”.65 In Jordan there is a common understanding that there is a group of Palestinian Jordanians, people with a Jordanian citizenship and a Palestinian origin.

The definition of identity is, in this thesis, the national and/or ethnic groups to which you feel you belong. A dual identification in this thesis would be if you identify with two groups, whether they are ethnic or national. The operationalization of identity will simply be to interpret the interviewees’ answers regarding their own identity and how they express their identity. The questions regarding identity are fairly direct to make the answers more straightforward.

62​Holme and Krohn Solvang, 1997, 99.

63​Scuzzarello, 2015, 1217.

64​Ibid, 1216-1217.

65​Ibid, 1218.

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3.2.2 Political Participation

To analyse political participation we need to first define and operationalize the term. Ekman and Amnå argue for a new typology for citizens’ political and “pre-political” behaviour. They divide the political participation into latent and manifest participation, as well as individual and collective participation. The manifest participation consists of different kinds of actions that seek to influence governmental decisions and political outcomes. These actions can be the formal political participation, such as voting, to have a membership within a political party or organisation, e.g. peace organisations or environmental groups. There are also extra-parliamentary forms of political participation. Collective forms of extra-parliamentary actions are e.g. participating in demonstrations and strikes or being a member of political action groups that stand outside of the parliamentary sphere. The individual forms of extra-parliamentary actions can be handing out leaflets and boycotting brands or products of ideological or political reasons. 66

Ekman and Amnå introduces the latent forms of political participation as “ways that do not formally relate to the political (parliamentary) domain – or in ways that are clearly not any sort of political protest – but that nevertheless could be seen as ‘pre-political’”. These latent 67 actions are also divided into collective latent participation and individual latent participation.

Individual latent participation can be social involvement, such as taking interest in politics and society and/or perceive politics as important. This form is attentive to social and political issues, rather than manifested in specific actions. The individual latent participation can also be more acting, e.g. give money to charity, discuss politics and societal issues with friends or on social media or read newspapers and watch TV regarding political issues. 68

In this study I will include and be observant also of the latent forms of political participation, since an inclusion of different forms of participation can enable different patterns to evolve.

The interviewees may not have the same attitude or engage the same in all forms of political action. There can, as mentioned by Achilli, be an ​expressed disengagement from politics but at the same time occur alternative political action, for instance attending football games, which would be a collective form of latent participation. 69

The manifest forms of participation that will be referred to in this study are ​voting, boycotting and ​demonstrating​. The latent forms of participation in this study will be ​discussing politics or political issues​, ​following or sharing political issues on social media​, ​reading or watching news regarding politics​, and ​supporting politicized football teams​. Additional forms may

66​Ekman, Joakim and Amnå, Erik. “Political Participation and Civic Engagement: Towards a New Typology”, 2012, 289-290.

67​Ibid, 291.

68​Ibid, 295.

69​Two of the major football teams in Jordan are mentioned in several interviews. These teams are al-Weihdat and al-Faisaly. Al-Weihdat is a football team mainly connected to Palestinians in Jordan, while al-Faisaly is connected mainly to the nationalist Jordanians. Mentioned in Achilli’s ​Disengagement from Politics,​ the support of the teams serves a bigger role than just two competing football teams. The teams and the games are used by nationalist Jordanians and Palestinians to chant against each other, against Israel, against the regime etc..

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emerge from the interviews and analysis thereof, in that case it will be made obvious to which form it belongs.

I will use this operationalization to define different forms of participation. This will add the opportunity to link identity to different forms of political participation and possibly find additional patterns regarding this. Scuzzarello means that migrants need to identify with their recipient country to engage in politics in said country, i.e conventional voting. If we add the layer of latent and manifest participation we could find patterns regarding the identification of people and which forms of participation they engage in or not.

3.3 Questions, interviews and interviewees

The interviews were based on five main questions regarding identity and political participation. The first question was “What do you do with your spare time?”. I asked this question to create a “smooth” beginning of the interview and also see if the interviewees would mention any kinds of political participation without me asking about them directly.

The second question was “Could you describe to me if and how you act ‘politically’ in your daily life”, this question was meant to find political actions through a more direct address to the issue. The third question reads out “Could you describe your role as a citizen of Jordan”, the expectation here was to find their feelings regarding their duties and rights in Jordan and also to fuse the questions regarding political participation and identity. The fourth question was “Could you describe for me who you are, your identity”, this question is directly asking about the interviewees’ identification, without asking about either a Palestinian or Jordanian identification. The interviews ended with another fused question on both identity and political participation, this question aimed at finding more latent forms of political action in which their identity could matter “Could you describe to me in which areas you express your Palestinian identity”.

There were also a number of additional back-up questions to support the main questions and to navigate the interviewee further into the subject (see appendix for all questions). The interviews were between 25 and 35 minutes long. For the interviews the questions regarding political participation were placed first and the questions regarding identity last. The reason for the order in the interviews is that the initial questions regarding political participation gave the interviewees a possibility to connect their thoughts on political engagement to their identity themselves. Asking them about their identity in the beginning would probably have lead them to make this connection. I wanted to secure the reliability of my results by not asking any leading questions. 70

The participants were all young Jordanian citizens with Palestinian heritage living in, or close to, Amman, the capital of Jordan. ​The Palestinian inhabitants of Jordan are concentrated around the big cities, particularly around Amman. The reason for interviewing people living in Amman is that the Palestinian Identity seems more rooted there than in the countryside

70​Kvale, Steinar and Brinkmann, Svend. ​Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun​, 2009, 262-263.

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where the inhabitants are mainly Jordanian tribes. ​All interviewees were between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. The reason for interviewing young people is that the younger generations are far from the actual migration from Palestine to Jordan and have never visited the country of their origin, while still identifying as more or less Palestinian. Instead of memories and a bond to places or people in Palestine, the politicized identity and the identification with the diaspora will be in focus. They have, theoretically, the same position and experience as Jordanian youths. They were born and raised in Jordan, they have been to the same schools and lived in the same society. The distinguishing element is their Palestinian identity. All of the interviewees were Muslim, this was not a conscious choice, it just happened to be so. I do not regard this as a problem though since, according to Index Mundi, 97,2% of Jordanians are Muslim. According to the 2003 Amended Basic Law, Title 71 one, Article four, islam is the official religion in Palestine. And according to Chapter one, 72 Article two in the Constitution of Jordan Islam is the state religion. Therefore I suppose that 73 religion is not a distinguishing element between the Palestinian identity and the Jordanian identity.

Out of ten interviewees, eight were male and two were female. The reason for predominantly male interviewees was mainly that it was harder to find females to interview. Young women do not move as freely as young men outside of their home in Jordan, which made it harder to approach them. ​A disadvantage of a majority of male interviewees is that the answers may reflect a male perspective more than a female perspective. We know since before that there can be a difference in political interest and in political participation between men and 74 women.75

The way to approach interviewees was by asking staff at restaurants, barber shops etc. to participate, these occupations are more often possessed by men than women. Another way was approaching people on the street. I wanted a variety within the defined group to get varied points of view. Even though they are in the same situation, being young people with a Palestinian background and Jordanian citizenship, they may experience this situation in different ways. I asked all interviewed about their name, age, occupation and the area they76 lived in to secure that they were not all waiters from the same area for example. The interviews took place in cafés and similar places to create a relaxed atmosphere. The relaxed atmosphere and tone was important to make the interviewees relaxed and able to speak more open about the prescribed topics. All of the interviews were recorded and later transcribed by me with some help from a translator.

71​Index Mundi. “Jordan Religions”, Last updated 2018-01-20.

72​The Palestinian Basic Law, 2003 Amended Basic Law.

73​The Constitution of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 1952-01-01.

74​Coffé, Hilde. “Women Stay Local, Men Go National and Global? Gender Differences in Political Interest”, 2013.

75​Burns, Nancy, Lehman Schlozman, Kay and Verba, Sidney. ​The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation​, 2001.

76​Holme, 1997, 104.

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During the interviews I was assisted by a translator, who translated more or less during the interviews. In some cases he did not need to translate at all, when the interview was kept in English, while in some cases he was translating the whole interview, when the interview was kept in Arabic. The translator is himself a Jordanian citizen with Palestinian heritage, which I hoped could create trust in me and confidence in the interview situation. A possible disadvantage of having a translator with Palestinian heritage might be that the interviewees feel compelled to answer in a certain way. Another Palestinian might make them “more Palestinian” because they feel like that is what the translator expects of them. The company of other Palestinians may make them more likely to express a strong Palestinian identity.

However, a possible advantage of having a translator with a Palestinian heritage might be that the interviewees feel comfortable to express a “true” strong Palestinian identity. A disadvantage of having a translator at all is that information may get lost in translation and misunderstandings are more likely to occur. I myself, understand and speak some Arabic which made it easier for me to trust a translator since I could understand part of the answers myself. It was important for me to have a translator to be sure that I understood everything.

Prior to the interviews, a pilot interview was held, in which I interviewed a person of Palestinian origin, with Jordanian citizenship within the preferred age limit. After the pilot interview I received feedback from the interviewee and we discussed the different parts and questions. Thanks to the pilot interview I was also able to estimate the time for each interview. I did not have to make any major changes, more than exchanging some words and phrases to make the questions more comprehensible. I transcribed the interviews from the recordings with assistance from my translator. To secure the reliability of the study I will continuously quote the interviews in the analysis and make it possible for the reader to see how I have interpreted the answers from the interviews. The interviewees have been given numbers (1-10) and when quoting I will refer to the number of the interviewee. They will be referred to as “participants” and “interviewees”, there is no difference in these choice of words, it’s simply an aesthetic choice to use them both.

4 Analysis

Initially the first component of the study, identity, will be discussed divided into dual identification and Palestinian identity. The reason is to create an overview and make the reading easier and not to separate them, since the Palestinian identity is a part of the dual identification but the Palestinian identity can also appear separate from the dual identification. Henceforth I will discuss the possible effect that identity has on different kinds of political participation, using the typology of manifest and latent participation by Ekman and Amnå. Both components of the study, identity and political participation, will be discussed within the theoretical framework and referencing to previous studies, mainly Scuzzarello and Klandermans et al.. When discussing the latent forms and manifest forms of participation I will discuss them relative to the possible dual identification and the Palestinian identity respectively.

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4.1 Identity

4.1.1 Dual Identification

Scuzzarello says that “a dual identification requires that individuals see themselves as members of different groups and at the same time part of the same superordinate entity”. 77 Many participants identify themselves as both Palestinian and Jordanian citizens:

I was born in Jordan and all of my friends and relations are in Jordan, at the same time all of my friends are Palestinians and I’m very proud of my origin. I’m originally a Palestinian but I would never take Jordan out of the picture. Both of them are very important to me. 78

When rating the importance between his Palestinian and Jordanian identity one interviewee says that “I feel the same about them. I was born here, raised here and I lived all my life here.

But my origin is Palestinian”. Another interviewee says that “For sure I’m a Palestinian and 79 I belong to Palestine. And I consider myself a Palestinian. [...] I am a Jordanian citizen and I live in Jordan. We all would love to go back to Palestine and live in Palestine but in the end we’re living here in Jordan”. 80

This indicates a dual identification since the participants identify with their ethnic group (Palestinian) but also feel part of the wider national polity (Jordan). It is important here, though, to define further what being Jordanian means. In the interviews I can sense a difference between identifying as a ​Jordanian citizen​, someone who is ​living in ​Jordan, and identifying as simply a ​Jordanian​. Since Jordan is a country with inhabitants of varied origin, the meaning of being a Jordanian citizen is not necessarily the same as being a Jordanian.

Discussing their identity all of the interviewees mentioned their Palestinian heritage. Many of the interviewees regard themselves as Palestinians living in ​Jordan instead of regarding themselves as Jordanians. One of the interviewees says that he “belongs to Palestine” but that he lives in Jordan. We can see the differing importance of the two identifications clearly in 81 this choice of words, ​belonging to​ something is very different from ​living​ somewhere.

One interviewee expresses indignation when speaking about the racism and segregation that, according to him, he and his Palestinian friends and relatives experience from Jordanians.

The same person says that Jordan is his country and that he is proud of Jordan. Here we can 82 see the same distinction between Jordanians and Jordan as we did in the earlier passage.

Scuzzarello has a similar finding in people expressing an idea of belonging to a city. The example of London as an “immigrant city” where “migrants have shaped the socio-political,

77​Scuzzarello, 2015, 1217.

78 Interview no.5

79 Interview no.7

80​Interview no.2

81 Interview no.2

82 Interview no.5

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economic and cultural character of the city over the decades. This has created an environment which is possibly more welcoming to immigrants than other cities”. 83 We can see a resemblance between London and Amman. Similarly to London Amman has been shaped by migrants predominantly over the last seven decades. This creates an environment in which it is natural to be a Palestinian in Jordan. This identification is shared by many people in the city, distinguishing them from Jordanians but at the same time assigning them a given space in Amman and Jordan. The distinction from Jordanians does not dismiss the identification with the Jordanian society which is built on more than the Jordanian people, but the composition of different nationalities and backgrounds within the Jordanian borders.

Scuzzarello means that the UK, for example, provides an environment where migrants can preserve their religious and national identifications but also identify with the wider British society. The number of migrants can affect this by creating a sense of belonging when you are surrounded by people of the same origin as you. Many of the interviewees mention 84 attending Palestinian cultural events and parties as a way of maintaining or expressing their Palestinian identity. We can suppose that in these events and parties they meet other Palestinians. As mentioned above, a sense of belonging emerge when you are surrounded by people of your origin. By attending this type of events and parties, the interviewees uphold their Palestinian identity, while at the same time creating a sense of belonging to the place they live in.

One of the interviewees says: “I am a Jordanian citizen. I have a Palestinian background, but all of my sympathy lies in Jordan. I have a loyalty towards Jordan because they treat me as a citizen, just like other Jordanians”. This interviewee expresses a strong loyalty towards85 Jordan. This loyalty seems to arise from the fact that he is a Palestinian immigrant. Even if he is using other words than the other interviewees this seems to be the same kind of dual identification we can find in the other interviews. He distinguishes himself from the Jordanians by saying that he feels loyalty towards Jordan ​because they treat him like ​other Jordanians​. This identification with Jordan seems to partially depend on his Palestinian identity.

Despite that the dual identification is experienced and expressed in different ways among the interviewees we can trace a dual identification among a majority of them. This dual identification takes form in identification with the ethnic group, Palestinians, and the wider society, Jordan.

4.1.2 The Palestinian identity

A dual identification and a Palestinian identity are not excluding of each other. The Palestinian identity can be separate or a part of a dual identification. Even though most participants identify with both Palestine and Jordan, many of the interviewees argue that their

83 Scuzzarello, 2015, 1226.

84 Ibid, 1227.

85​Interview no.3

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Palestinian identity is more important than the identification with Jordan. One of the interviewees says that “I’m more Palestinian [but] of course, also Jordanian”. Klandermans 86 et al. had similar results showing that identification with the ethnic group was much stronger than identification with the national group. When expressing their identity the Palestinian87 identity seems to be substantial for most interviewees. Some talk about how they ​differ from Jordanians making a distinction between the Jordanian identity and the Palestinian identity.

One of the girls says that Jordanians “are conservative in a weird way [...] for me, being a girl, we are less conservative and more free. But Jordanians view us as less conservative in a negative way”. 88

Many of the interviewees says that they lack rights in Jordan which makes them feel less like Jordanian citizens. One of the interviewees says that “the other half [Jordanians] eat the same way I eat, talk the same way I talk. We shouldn’t be divided. We are all the same. I have a right to be the same as other people, but I don’t get these rights”. One interviewee says that 89

“There are people who don’t have rights and there are people who have more priority. But we don’t have priority because we are Palestinians, not Jordanians”. Another one of the90 interviewees expresses her thoughts regarding her rights:

The rights that I should have as a citizen of this what they call “democratic country” are many - I should have a good work, a salary, a better life. I do have right to some healthcare but the hospitals are not good. If you don’t have any money you won’t have a good life or a life with dignity. [I lack these rights] because I’m Palestinian. This whole country goes by ​wasta . They don’t care about 91 others. 92

If the experienced lack of rights makes them feel less like Jordanian citizens maybe it makes them feel more like Palestinians. One of the interviewees explains that “If I feel myself a bit more of a Palestinian it’s just because of the racism in Jordan [...] But that makes me even more proud of my Palestinian roots, it’s because of this”. 93

We can see here that they feel that their lack of rights is a result of them being Palestinians and them identifying stronger as Palestinians can be a result of them experiencing a lack of rights. One of the interviewees says he identifies solely as a Palestinian because of the treatment and segregation of Palestinians that he perceives in Jordan. He says that he does not feel Jordanian at all, but if the situation would have been different and he felt more included

86​Interview no. 4

87​Klandermans et al., 2008, 999.

88 Interview no.9

89​Interview no.5

90​Interview no.9

91​One thing that is referred to in many of the interviews is the corruption in Jordan. One word that is often used on the topic of corruption is the word ​wasta​. The literal meaning of wasta if you look it up in the dictionary is

“personal connection (of s.o., used to gain s.th.)”.The wasta is the connection to a person in a position that can make things easier for you. It means that if you want to get out of trouble, want to speed up the process of legal documents, need a job etc., you can use your wasta. The practice of wasta is widespread in Jordan.

92​Interview no.10

93​Interview no.5

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he could have identified as a Jordanian in addition to his Palestinian identification. When 94 talking about his rights as a Jordanian citizen he means that there are a lot of “missing rights”

and mentions good healthcare and good education, “Some people get these rights, some people don’t get these rights. It’s a matter of wasta”. A perceived lack of rights can prevent you from experiencing any duties, among them to engage politically. This will be further 95 discussed in the part called “Manifest participation”. Among the interviewees there are a few who express no affiliation at all towards Jordan. One of them says that “I’m Palestinian. I’m not Jordanian even if I have citizenship. I love Palestine even if I haven’t seen it. This is not my country, even if I lived here my whole life”. 96

A so-called state sponsored discrimination regarding the marginalization of Palestinian Jordanians in Jordanian politics has been discussed in previous studies. There are no sources 97 mentioning the kind of discrimination regarding healthcare and education that is mentioned in the interviews. It is not important though if this racism, segregation and discrimination is the reality or if it is only what the interviewees feel. What is important is that the interviewees actually perceive a lack of rights that Jordanians benefit and if they perceive a lack of rights this can make them less inclined to perceive any duties as Jordanian citizens. As mentioned before, Klandermans et al. say that immigrants with a dual identification judges that the government treats them fair more than immigrants without a dual identification. Even 98 though I see a dual identification among most participants, the ethnic identity seems to be stronger than the national identification which would explain that they experience a lack of rights, and unfair treatment from the government.

The stronger ethnic identity and the perceived unfairness can also be a result of fellow citizens and institutions not validating the Palestinians as part of the superordinate entity.

According to Scuzzarello, as mentioned before, the group needs to be validated as a minority and as part of the superordinate entity to be able to perform one’s dual identification. 99 Regardless official policies it is impossible to determine here whether the Palestinians are validated by the wider society as a part of said society. This could be the subject of further research.

4.2 Political Participation

4.2.1 Latent Participation

One of the interviewees says that he feels like less of a citizen than others because he, as a Palestinian, lacks some rights that he experiences that non-Palestinian citizens have. He says that “we [Palestinians in Jordan] lack good education and good healthcare because of

94​Interview no.1

95​Scuzzarello, 2015, 1229.

96​Interview no.9

97​Nanes, 2008, 87.

98​Klandermans et al., 2008, 1000.

99​Scuzzarello, 2015, 1218.

References

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