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<title>FAFO Report 177</title>

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<H2>Paid employment in host country</H2>
The following cases show different ways of adaptation to the different local
economic conditions, and give a picture of how Palestinians participate
as labour-power in the different fields of the local economy.
<H3>Agriculture</H3>
The south Lebanese camp of Rashidiyya lies in a fertile agricultural region
that provides the refugees with working opportunities. The Palestinians
in the camp have their own plots where they grow food-stuff for consumption
or informal exchange activity. The area was previously leased by the state
to Lebanese land-owners, who in turn rented it to refugees. In addition,
agricultural fields are the main income source for numerous day-workers,
who are picked up and driven to the fields in the morning by a foreman.
One of them, 22 year old Rami, makes around 6 USD pr day from this employment.
In summer he works 3-4 days a week, during the winter season when the citrus
trees are picked, he works daily.<BR>
<BR>
The lack of work permits for Palestinians in Lebanon does not prevent refugees
from establishing their own companies, like an example from Rashidiyya shows:<BR>
<BR>
63 year old Abu Rashid from the Galilee, has managed to build up his independent
business. His brothers are currently his companions in their two joint companies:
a company which sprays pesticide in agricultural fields and citrus plantations,
and a company which rents citrus-plantations owned by Lebanese on a yearly
basis. The latter is called daman-business.<BR>
<BR>
Abu Rashid has only four years of schooling and worked as a day-labourer
in the fields from 1948 until 1959 when he was engaged as a regular employee
by two Lebanese land-owners. He worked mostly with spraying, and gradually
became responsible for the whole spraying operation in a large plantation.
After 14 years he had learnt everything about spraying. He bought a spraying
motor together with his two brothers and a fourth Palestinian friend with
their saved money, and started a private company in 1973. At the time the
motor cost approximately 9,000 USD in 1994-currency. The company invested
in another motor in 1975. The company has standing orders in different plantations
and agricultural fields throughout the district. <BR>
<BR>
All regular workers in the two companies are currently family members. Abu
Rashid has 5 daughters and 5 sons, his brother Ali has 7 sons and 4 daughters,
his brother Nader has 3 sons and 5 daughters. A large number of the sons
and the males that are married into the family, along with the male grandchildren
of age, work in the spraying company which is an all-year business. Each
member receives a daily income between 15,000 - 20,000 lira (9-12 USD).
<BR>
<BR>
The spraying activity is an excellent advantage for Abu Rashid's other activity,
the daman-company, which rents fields for farming. When he sprays the fields,
Abu Rashid gets a good impression of which plantations would yield the best
produce, and is thus able to rent the best fields. In the daman-company
Abu Rashid and his brothers function as employers; they engage foremen who
are in charge of finding seasonal workers both Palestinians and Lebanese
- for the picking. <BR>
<BR>
While the foremen are both Palestinians and Lebanese, most of the workers
are Palestinians. Working in the field is viewed as low status activity;
Lebanese who replaced Palestinian workers after the Israeli invasion in
1982 cost their employers almost double the wages of Palestinian workers
(Regional Surveys of the World 1994: 619).<BR>
<BR>
Abu Rashid's business is a good example of a well incorporated activity.
His work is a very common activity among Lebanese in south Lebanon. In the
area there are numerous Lebanese owned pesticide spraying companies, doing
the same work as Abu Rashid, but he is the only Palestinian dealing with
Lebanese customers. This means that even though he is outside the state-controlled
formal economy, he is inside the informal Lebanese economy. In other words;
he is not incorporated in the state economy, but very well incorporated
in the informal Lebanese economy.<BR>
<BR>
Another interesting point is that Palestinians in the camp are considered
as cheaper labour-force than Lebanese, thus revealing a segmented labour
market between Palestinian and Lebanese nationals in the agricultural sector.
While the entrepreneur Abu Rashid is an example of economic incorporation,
the common Palestinian land workers, with a salary half of the Lebanese
worker's income, are incorporated into the Lebanese economy quite differently.<BR>
<BR>
A third point to be noted is the way Abu Rashid organises his business through
his family network. His kinship relations constitute the bulk of the regular
work force in his companies.<BR>
<BR>
Connected to the agricultural field is the sector of trading vegetables
at the marketplaces downtown and inside the camps. The market prices in
the camps are usually lower than outside because much of the vegetables
and fruits that reach the camps are not first quality. The following example
shows how the market in the Wihdat Camp in Amman functions:<BR>
<BR>
The 25 year old unemployed Walid and his brother work on an irregular basis,
selling fruit and vegetables at the market in Wihdat. Although this is among
the biggest market places in Jordan the vendor activity is illegal. The
market blocks the main road and makes it impossible for regular vehicle
traffic to enter the camp from the main square where the market is situated.
UNRWA has complained to the Ministry of Palestinian Affairs, because UNRWA-services
like garbage collection are hindered in entering the camp through the market
quarter. <BR>
<BR>
The police raid the area now and then, but at a relatively high cost as
tension and frustrations gets a short outburst, and the minute police leave,
the sellers are back in the street. Understanding the need of small market
places UNRWA started organising a system where each shelter unit had their
&quot;door&quot; bab in an area close to the market. But the majority, and
predominantly the poorest families, sold their share. Now these &quot;babs&quot;
are replaced by different commercial stores, while those who sold their
&quot;babs&quot; are back on the street as vendors. In order to cope with
this a system of licenses for selling was tried. But to implement this system
supervision is needed, in the absence of permanent presence of the authorities
the majority of vendors who sold their bab are not deterred from selling
without a license. Instead the vendors have developed their own system;
they have organised to keep &quot;intruders&quot; away from the best places
to sell. <BR>
<BR>
Walid's household belongs to this latter category. His father sold their
bab. Walid tells that one of his relatives was taken to jail as the police
tried to clean the streets. Once they took the carriage Walid had rented
and kept it for 6 months. But it does not keep them from selling at the
market whenever there is an urgent need for money in Walid's household.
Then he and his brother or nephew, who live upstairs, sell vegetables or
fruit on the street market. <BR>
<BR>
The per hour outcome of this work is low. The working day starts at 5 o'clock
in the morning. In the market place in Wihdat a carriage is rented for one
JD (1,45 USD). The men walk pushing the carriage to the central market of
Amman. At the central market all the farmers deliver their products which
is then sold in boxes of vegetables and fruits to the highest bid, but at
a price which officially should be inside a government fixed maximum or
minimum charge. Two percent of the price is paid as taxes. Last time Walid
went he bought 50 boxes of cucumbers. For one box carrying 8-10 kg he paid
1,8 JD (2,6 USD). At the market he sold the cucumber for 0,2-0,35 JD (1,3-0,5
USD) a kilo. He and his nephew worked until 19 PM. They didn't manage to
sell all the cucumbers until the next day. They earned 9 JD (13 USD), 4,5
JD each. The per hour salary was in other words less than half a JD (0,7
USD). <BR>
<BR>
Here we see how lack of alternatives pushes a family to depend on marginal
activities, which renders very low outcome in the informal sector, and which
the authorities are unsuccessful in getting under control. In this situation
of hard competition and conflict with the police, Walid and the other vendors
have organised themselves. Again we see how family members constitute the
basic network for the business.<BR>
<H3>Trade and Transport</H3>
Palestinians with relatives spread all over the Arab and Western world,
might benefit from their kinship relations which form a network for doing
business. <BR>
<BR>
47-year old Ahmed started his career as a taxi-driver after he and his wife
fled from Dheisheh Camp to Amman after the 1967 War. Later he started trading
cars with the help of his uncle in Germany. His uncle bought the cars, and
Ahmed drove them to Amman and sold them. He made good profit by this business.
After two years he was able to invest in a trailer, a piece of land, and
he built his own house. He then started transporting goods across the Middle
East, through the port of Aqaba to Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This business
is vulnerable to ups and downs in the general economic situation. Ahmed
got problems repaying his loans, so he sold the trailer and bought a smaller
truck. It still wasn't enough, so he had to sell the house as well (his
rich uncle in Kuwait refused to help him). He complains that after the Gulf
war there has been very little long-distance transport, which is what pays.
One trip Aqaba-Baghdad makes around 600 JD (870 USD), but it's three months
since last time his son had this trip (only his son works now, because Muhammed
himself is suffering from a bad back-pain). &quot;Before I used to advertise
in the papers, but I've stopped - there is no work anymore&quot;, he says.<BR>
<BR>
Ahmed claims that he and other Palestinians are openly discriminated against
by the port authorities in Aqaba, where there is a queuing-system. &quot;Often
we have to wait for a long time, while Jordanian drivers with good connections
with the port office get loads right away. These days, due to small amounts
of goods, we don't go there and wait. We are on a telephone list, and they
call us when it is our turn. So now it's difficult to know when Jordanians
are cheating in the queue&quot;, he complains.<BR>
<BR>
The driver believes that Jordanian colleagues are cheating in the queue,
but he is not sure, and he cannot prove it. He shares a widespread conviction
among Palestinians that they are systematically discriminated against when
it comes to obtaining jobs and education in Jordan. When a Palestinian is
refused a job, he will most likely claim that his origin was the reason,
even if he cannot document that he was better qualified than the Jordanian
who got the job. True or not, this suspicion towards the authorities or
Jordanians in general is a disintegrating factor in itself.<BR>
<H3>Crafts and home production</H3>
Along a narrow street in the al-Taj suburb of south Amman there are five
carpenter workshops on a row, making furniture, doors and building materials.
One of them is newly established. The man in charge is 33 year old Fuad,
who for many years worked in his brother's workshop. Four months ago he
established his own, and he hopes that he will manage to run the project.
<BR>
<BR>
He lives in another Palestinian suburb just outside the Nasr Camp, with
his wife and four children. He has rented the room for the workshop, and
equipped it through credits granted by the equipment agent. He has also
started the work with four employees; one is his nephew, the others are
Palestinian friends, but he is still waiting for the license from the municipality
to open the workshop formally. He is a bit excited about the outcome, because
he has a political record; he has been a fighter in the Fatah forces in
Lebanon, and was two years in Jordanian prison, after he was arrested under
an illegal border-crossing some years ago. The secret police still has his
passport, but he believes that he will get the permission to work now. &quot;The
situation has improved after the democratisation process started in 1989
following the parliamentary elections&quot;, he says. For a workshop like
this he will have to pay 150 JD (217 USD) yearly in taxes. If he has more
employees, he will have to pay more taxes, so the best is to employ your
brothers, he explains. In addition, there is a special 10 JD &quot;intifada-tax&quot;
for the government. His customers are both Jordanian and Palestinian, most
of them are residents in the mixed neighbourhood of al-Taj. <BR>
<BR>
Fuad is optimistic about the prospects for his business: &quot;We had more
than enough to do when I worked with my brother, so I know the market is
there&quot;, he says. He is strongly in need of money because he has a private
loan of 2,000 JD (2,900 USD), which he borrowed to pay for treatment for
his mother in a private hospital before she died two years ago. <BR>
<BR>
Fuad is following the pattern of family business; he got to know the market
through his previous work with his brother who assisted him in establishing
the new workshop. If he receives the license from the municipality his production
will be a part of the formal Jordanian economy. He will register only three
of the four paid workers though, in order to pay less taxes. He claims that
tax evasion is a common way of doing business, also among Jordanian shopkeepers.
His irregular part of the production is in that case a sign of that Fuad's
activity is incorporated in the Jordanian economic system, which is a combination
of a formal and an informal sector.<BR>
<BR>
A less well paying business, though a common informal sector, is women's
home based production. <BR>
<BR>
Umm Nasser, a widow living in the suburb of Taybeh in south Amman, is a
case in point. Since her husband died in 1967, she has made her own money
by selling her impressive embroidery works, dresses and table clothes to
her neighbours, who call her the best tailor in Taybeh. But most of the
income of the household today comes from others in the household. The illiterate
woman shares her rented five room flat with two daughters, three sons, one
daughter in law and two grandsons. Four of them are working, so her home
production is not the only source of income. Both daughters, Dana, 33, and
Rima, 29, are working as secretaries, the youngest son Said, 27, is a salesman,
and the wife of the oldest son Nasser is working in a ladies' saloon. Two
of the sons, Nasser, 37, and Auni, 28, are not working for the time being.
Umm Jamal's own salary is only 40-50 JD (58-72 USD) pr. month, Said makes
around 75 JD (109 USD), and Rima, Dana and Nasser's wife get around 150
JD (218 USD) monthly each. <BR>
<BR>
Everybody pays 40 percent of their income to common family expenses - except
Taher, because he is saving money to bring his Moroccan wife to Jordan.
In addition, other relatives, and neighbours come with money from time to
time, usually during occasions, like Ramadan and &quot;Id. Umm Jamal's customers
are all Palestinians, because the whole Taybeh neighbourhood is inhabited
by refugees originally from Dora, Umm Nasser's own village, most of which
was occupied in 1948, the rest in 1967.<BR>
<BR>
Umm Nasser's family shows how the collective attitude is a way of sharing
scarce resources, not only for daily expenses, but also more basic life-time
investments like weddings: Auni is going to marry this summer. Most of the
costs will be paid by his brothers because he is unemployed,.<BR>
<BR>
During periods of economic hardship, Umm Nasser has taken advantage of the
very good social network in Taybeh, established on the basis of the common
origin of most residents in the neighbourhood, who originally come from
the village of Dora. The neighbours offer her gifts because they feel a
responsibility for caring for their kin.
<H3>Services</H3>
As the younger generations of Palestinian refugees are relatively well educated,
they are active in the social service and education sector. In Jordan and
the West Bank refugees are employed in governmental schools and health institutions.
<BR>
<BR>
Haitham, a 54 year refugee from Jaffa, living with his family in Askar camp,
is working both as a teacher in a UNRWA-school and as a driving teacher.
He started teaching after he was refused as a pilot in the Jordanian Air
Force, according to himself because of his Palestinian identity. Others
in the family are also working in the social sector. One daughter works
as a nurse, another, educated as a social worker, is an UNRWA welfare officer.
The latter is still unmarried and lives with her parents. This family is
quite well off, not at least because UNRWA pays approximately double the
wages which are paid for comparable governmental jobs. The refugees have
an advantage when it comes to obtaining the attractive UNRWA-jobs, because
the organisation prefers to employ refugees21. Haitham's eldest son, Ziad,
runs many activities at the same time; he worked as an electrician in Israel
at the same time as he took courses to become a driving teacher like his
father. When he passed the exam, he stopped working in Israel and started
working at his father's driving school. The work as a driving teacher is
even better paid than UNRWA-jobs.<BR>
<BR>
As we can see, this family is making a surplus of all these well paid jobs.
A sign of how well off they are, is that the single daughter spends the
whole UNRWA-salary of 315 JD (457 USD) monthly as she likes. Haitham decided
two years ago that time had come to make a major investment; after four
decades in the camp he took the step to move out. With the help of his savings
he bought a house and 1,25 dunum of land, and built another storey, for
the total cost of 100,000 JD (145,000 USD). Within some weeks the family
will move in.<BR>
<BR>
The story of Haitham is an example of a successful strategy of combination
of different activities, some of which have underpinned the other; working
in Israel, studying, working as a teacher, starting a driving school, and,
at last, investing in land and house.
<H3>Remittances from abroad</H3>
Since the beginning of the oil boom, well paid employment in the Gulf has
been an attractive option for Palestinians. After the Gulf crisis, around
300,000 returnees (Guide to UNRWA, April 1994:6), of whom the huge majority
were Palestinians, came back from Kuwait to Jordan after being obliged to
leave. <BR>
<BR>
A common strategy was to save money for later investments in land or education.
In some cases the whole family moved to the Gulf, in other cases only one
in the family went there for a period, while sending money back home.<BR>
<BR>
The new suburb of Umm Nuwwara in Amman was established in 1992, built specially
for the Gulf returnees. The residents are disillusioned by the sudden change
from a relatively wealthy life in Kuwait to their poor life in Jordan. The
shopkeeper Auni in the main street, originally from a village close to Hebron,
went to Saudi Arabia in 1961 where he worked as a teacher. He kept in touch
with his family, and went to see them every summer. After the occupation
of the West Bank, his family went to the Souf camp in Jordan, while he went
to Kuwait, also working as a teacher. He sent one part of his salary to
his family, and saved the other part. In 1976 he had saved enough money
to buy a piece of land and build a house without taking up loans. He continued
working in Kuwait, but had to return to Amman in 1990 where he now lives
with his wife, a cousin who also works as an UNRWA-teacher, and six children.
Today he has his daily work in the small shop he opened by the savings from
Kuwait. <BR>
<BR>
Another option for increasing a household's economic assets is to migrate
to the West in order to find work. This is more difficult than finding work
in the Gulf, due to the strict visa-practices by most western countries.
Also it is a more expensive option. The far distance also means that the
contact might not be very regular. Abu Ghassan's son who is studying in
the Philippines, considers going to the US when he finishes this year. His
father doesn't want him to emigrate, but if the son goes there, he says
that he knows for sure that the son will send money to him and the rest
of the family.<BR>
<BR>
A third option for acquiring &quot;external&quot; remittances is the West
Bank. Many of the 1967-refugees left their farmed land behind, which later
was run by their relatives. The Jenin-resident Nayef was working in Algeria
at the time of the 1967 War, and was thus barred from returning to his family.
He settled in Amman where he lives with his wife and seven children. He
has received remittances from his brother regularly who farms the land.
The amount changes according to the harvest; last year Nayef's share was
700 JD (1,015 USD).<BR>
<BR>
Receiving remittances from abroad is affecting the refugees' ties with the
host country. When their main income source is from outside, the refugees
become less economically dependent on the host country.
<H3>Land investments</H3>
The influx of refugees from the occupied territories has driven the land
prices in neighbouring countries upwards. Many Palestinians have managed
to take advantage of the land price increase by buying and selling land,
often buying from locals and selling to other Palestinians. <BR>
<BR>
The retired bulldozer driver, Abu Ghassan, was one of the lucky ones, when
he, after he had been working some years in Saudi Arabia was able to buy
two pieces of land in 1976. He built a house on one of them, and moved with
his family out of Nasr camp. Ten years later, he sold the other piece, which
had cost him 4,000 JD, for a price of 13,000 JD, thus making a good profit,
which was used to send his brightest son to the Philippines to study civil
engineering.<BR>
<BR>
Abu Rashid and his brothers in Lebanon (mentioned on page 66) also invested
money in land. Instead of spending all the profit from the pesticide company
on their daily expenses, they chose to buy a piece of land outside Tyre.
The brothers built a four-storey building, and succeeded in selling the
apartments in 1986, profiting thereby from the land bought some years earlier.<BR>
<BR>
Investment in land or other property differs in certain aspects from other
types of economic activities. The outcome is based on a long term strategy
more than most other income generating activities. Furthermore, refugees
who own land in the host country, establish economic ties in the area they
reside in which those without property have not. Investment in land is thus
an activity that attaches the refugees to the locality, and therefore might
affect their future mobility.
<H3>Depending on UNRWA and Charities</H3>
Those refugees who are not able to meet their basic needs for food and shelter,
are defined as Special Hardship Cases by the UNRWA, and receive rations
from the organisation. Out of the 2,9 million registered refugees by the
end of 1993, 166.987 are registered as SHC-clients (Guide to UNRWA, April
1994). UNRWA's criteria to be accepted as a SHC are strict, and all SHC-cases
are subject to detailed investigation by UNRWA staff.<BR>
<BR>
70 year old Zeinab in Askar Camp in the West Bank has headed her household
since she became a widow 15 years ago. Zeinab has received SHC-support for
some periods. She has eight daughters and three sons. Today two sons and
two daughters are living in her house. One of the daughters (36), came back
home in 1991, after she had worked ten years as an English teacher in Oman.
She is still looking for work. The other daughter (32) is a nursery teacher,
but is not able to find any work. One of the sons (45) receives his own
SHC-help because he has diabetes and has psychological problems. The other
son, Abbas (24) was clever at school, but is currently without work. Zeinab
tells that Abbas, after he was beaten badly by Israeli soldiers in 1989,
left for Amman to continue his studies, where he received 100 JD (145 USD)
from the PLO office. His two sisters working in Oman paid for his studies
until they both returned after the Gulf War. Until Abbas returned home in
1992, the family received SHC-support. When he came back, Zeinab lost the
SHC-status she had for two years, because Abbas was over 18 years old and
was supposed to be able to work. But he did not find any work, and the family
could not afford to let him finish the studies, specially after his sisters
came back from the Gulf and UNRWA cut the welfare program. Today, Zeinab's
family is dependent on economic help from her married daughters who are
not living at home. The daughter bring food to their mother's household
each day, and sometimes give her money. Abbas does not feel good about the
situation: &quot;It is the boys&quot; obligation to provide for their parents,
but with our family it is the girls who help my mother most&quot;, he says.
Zeinab explains that she always encouraged the children to study, because
they did not have the option of farming the land which they lost when they
left their village near Jaffa in 1948. &quot;But we could not afford to
give all the children education. So it was the youngest girls who got the
best education&quot;, she says.<BR>
<BR>
In Zeinab's case we see a type of combined strategy with long-term goals;
two daughters were sent to the Gulf to work. The surplus from the salaries
was invested in education for the other children. The daughters who worked
in Oman sent home money regularly and paid for the education of their brother
Abbas. Zeinab harvested the fruits of the investment in the education of
her youngest two daughters until the Gulf war broke out in 1991. When the
daughters were forced to leave the Gulf, Zeinab stopped receiving overseas
revenues and her household increased by two unemployed members. Abbas was
also forced to stop his studies because his sisters could not pay for him
any longer. Having an 18-year old son no longer studying, Abbas was theoretically
able to feed the household accruing to UNRWA's guidelines. Zeinab therefore
did not fill the requirements for receiving UNRWA's SHC-support any longer
and lost it. <BR>
<BR>
Zeinab, however, uses her kinship to gain access to resources outside her
own household. Three daughters, married and living outside Zeinab's household,
bring both food and money in order to maintain the material and physical
needs of their mother's household. Such food transfers do not reveal the
redistributive mechanism active in preserving the self-sufficiency of a
certain household (Moore 1988:61-62). Food is transferred from an external
household, in our case-Zeinab's daughters, and redistributed at the point
of consumption in Zeinab's household.<BR>
<BR>
The case also illustrates two other points. First, SHC-support is useful
to a certain point, but this support proves ineffective when the basic transfers
provided by other household members terminate. Second, daughters are as
important as sons when it comes in implementing combined strategies of economic
adaptation. Whether sponsoring the education of their brothers or feeding
their kin, females support their parents' household despite marriage and
the establishment of separate households.
<H3>Activities in political and national institutions</H3>
Some political groups pay well for their employees, making political activities
as a source of income. In addition to regular salaries and pensions, PLO
has traditionally provided funds for families of martyrs, imprisoned or
deportees, and it has provided politically active and good students with
scholarships abroad. These funds, which especially dominated the Palestinian
economy in Lebanon, have been reduced due to PLO's financial difficulties
since 1990. But Palestinian institutions still exist in Lebanon: Abu Hassan
from Nablus and Abu Fadi from Gaza are both working in the PLO-administration
of Rashidiyya camp. As 1967-refugees they are paid special attention to
by the PLO because they are deprived of the basic UNRWA-services. Abu Hassan
guards the camp entrance, while Abu Fadi works in the Palestine Red Crescent
Society's (PRCS) hospital in the camp. PRCS is one of the main employers
among the national institutions run by the PLO.<BR>
<BR>
There are still well paid officials at the different PLO offices and embassies
around in the Arab countries. A Fatah-veteran, working with security-related
issues in Amman, says he earns 500 JD (725 USD) monthly. Another top official
of the PRCS would not tell how much he earns, but he pays 2,000 JD (2,900
USD) a year on his house in Amman, which he rented after he came from Kuwait
four years ago, and he uses another 2,000 JD (2,900 USD) yearly on his children's
private education. Now, when the Palestinian National Authority is building
up an administration apparatus in the self-rule areas, many political activists
both inside and outside the territories expect to get a position in the
self-administered areas.

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