The right to own property is something we generally take for granted. For refugees living in camps, in some cases for as long as generations, the link between citizenship and property ownership becomes strained. How do refugees protect these assets and preserve communal ties? How do they maintain a sense of identity and belonging within chaotic settings?
Protection Amid Chaos follows people as they develop binding claims on assets and resources in challenging political and economic spaces. Focusing on Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, it shows how the first to arrive developed flexible though legitimate property rights claims based on legal knowledge retained from their homeland, subsequently adapted to the restrictions of refugee life. As camps increased in complexity, refugees merged their informal institutions with the formal rules of political outsiders, devising a broader, stronger system for protecting their assets and culture from predation and state incorporation.
For this book, Nadya Hajj conducted interviews with two hundred refugees. She consults memoirs, legal documents, and findings in the United Nations Relief Works Agency archives. Her work reveals the strategies Palestinian refugees have used to navigate their precarious conditions while under continuous assault and situates their struggle within the larger context of communities living in transitional spaces.
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures, Maps, and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations and Translations
- Note on Arabic Transliteration
- Introduction
- 1. A Theory of Property Right Formation in Palestinian Refugee Camps
- 2. Crafting Informal Property Rights in Fawdah
- 3. Formal Property Rights in Refugee Camps in Jordan
- 4. Formal Property Rights in Refugee Camps in Lebanon
- 5. Renegotiating Property Rights in Nahr al-Bared Camp
- Conclusion
- Appendix A: Titles from NBC and Beddawi in Arabic with English Translations
- Appendix B: Research Methods
- Notes
- References
- Index
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