Palestinian diaspora

About 5 million Palestinians live in the Middle East outside Israel and Palestine. While over half live in Jordan, significant communities also live in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and the Gulf states. Palestinians desiring to leave their homeland encounter many problems as citizens without a state, and the response from different governments varies significantly. Surrounding Israel, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians still live in refugee camps.

Lebanon permits non-Lebanese to work only if Lebanese can work in their home country; as Palestine is not considered a state, Lebanon did not allow their Palestinian refugees to work until a 2010 law was passed granting some rights.

Syria and Jordan guarantee Palestinian refugees the right to work and to receive benefits, and Jordan has many Palestinian citizens.

The Gulf states traditionally welcomed Palestinian workers, but when Yasser Arafat supported Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, Kuwait expelled nearly all Palestinians in Kuwait.

For more information on the refugee situation in general, see http://bit.ly/oLq61O; for the situation in Kuwait, see http://bit.ly/ndG4SA.