- Gaza has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007, with over 2 million Palestinians living with a lack of clean water, inadequate food, overstretched health services, and one of the highest unemployment rates globally.
- A new study finds conditions in Gaza have been so deplorable for so long that nearly all migrants have felt compelled to leave against their will.
- Since this study was conducted in 2018-19, almost all participants have been forcibly displaced, and at least 2 have been killed.
Life and Migration Under Siege
Hamas’s attacks and hostage-taking campaign against Israel in October 2023 have been horrific. But so too have been the living conditions in Gaza on an even grander scale, before and after the attacks.
This is the conclusion of Caitlin Procter of the European University Institute. In her recent study published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, she delves into the horrors of life in Gaza and migration under the Israeli blockade.
Read on to learn more about Procter’s findings, and how you can support innocent Palestinian civilians as they are increasingly driven from their homes.
Background
Many know that conditions in Gaza were dire before Hamas launched its horrific attacks on Israel in October 2023. Fewer are aware of just how much suffering the Palestinian population has endured, especially since the implementation of a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade in 2007.
As Procter notes, migration has been a significant aspect of Palestinian life for generations:
- The area was under Ottoman colonial rule for centuries, and after World War I, British colonial rule. Both ruling empires implemented forced migrations.
- The creation of the Israeli state in 1948 resulted in the mass forced migration of approximately 750,000 Palestinians in 1948.
- Since the start of Israel’s occupation in 1967, various policies over the decades have stifled Palestinian economic development and movement, both internally and externally.
Today, Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas of the world, with over 2 million Palestinians crammed into an area even smaller than the size of Manhattan.
In 2007, after Hamas took control, Israel imposed a blockade, declaring Gaza a “hostile territory.” This blockade, encompassing air, land, and sea, has significantly restricted the movement of Gazans, essentially trapping them within the enclave and severely limiting their access to the outside world. The effects of the blockade have been severe and widely documented:
- Frequent rocket fire, drone surveillance, and military incursions
- Lack of access to clean water
- Widespread shortages of food
- Widespread shortages of housing
- Widespread shortages of electricity
- Woefully inadequate health care, which led to especially severe COVID-19 outbreaks
- One of the largest unemployment rates in the world, reaching 46% in 2023
As of this writing, Israel’s retaliation to Hamas’s October 2023 attacks has led to even more destruction and suffering:
- Over 250,000 housing units have been damaged, and 50,000 have been completely destroyed, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
- 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza–over 1.9 million people–have been forcibly displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
- Millions are now crowded into Rafah, the southernmost settlement of Gaza and the area nearest the Egyptian border. This area previously only had 170,000 inhabitants.
- At least 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, with 70% of these fatalities women and children, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Thousands more uncounted fatalities likely lay under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
It is unclear how this ongoing humanitarian crisis will be resolved, and actions you can take to help will be covered near the end of this post. But first, we will turn to Procter’s study, which sheds light on what it was like to live in Gaza–and attempt to leave Gaza–before the recent eruption of bloodshed.
The Study
Procter summarizes the goals of her study as follows:
“The aims of this article are threefold: to provide critical context to the on-going, mass forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza; to address questions on the scope of migration from Gaza in recent years; and to build on the existing scholarship surrounding coercion and migration.”
Between 2018 and 2019, Procter lived with a family in Gaza City to deeply immerse herself in the community and gain firsthand insights. As an outsider, it took a lot of work for her to build meaningful, trust-based relationships with participants and their families:
- Initial contacts for interviews were established through civil society groups, community organizations, and NGOs, expanding through networks to include friends and connections of initial interviewees.
- Collaboration with a local research assistant, who remained anonymous for confidentiality reasons, was crucial for facilitating interviews and translations, underscoring the collaborative nature of the fieldwork.
The primary data collection methods included observations, semi-structured interviews, and informal conversations among young people and their families. This approach allowed Procter to capture a broad and nuanced understanding of the motivations, experiences, and challenges faced by young Palestinians contemplating leaving Gaza. In all, Procter’s study incorporates the following:
- A total of 50 young individuals aged 18-25, actively engaged in the process of leaving Gaza, were interviewed, along with several interviews with their family members across different locations within Gaza. Procter also engaged in follow-up conversations with some participants after leaving Gaza via phone calls and online platforms to gather ongoing insights.
- Additionally, 22 interviews were conducted with Palestinian and foreign policymakers, humanitarian aid workers, and diplomats to incorporate a broad range of perspectives on the issue.
- The research extended beyond Gaza, with subsequent interviews conducted with 15 young individuals who had sought asylum in various European countries, offering a view of their migration journey.
Findings
Palestinians face considerable challenges attempting to leave Gaza. There are two major crossings out of Gaza, the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing controlled by Israel and the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Despite these barriers, Gazans have resorted to paying substantial bribes to facilitate their departure, especially through the Rafah crossing, in hopes of reaching destinations like Turkey and eventually Europe.
Procter spends considerable time discussing the challenges of mapping migration out of Gaza:
- In short, there are a lot of obstacles to accurately quantifying how many Gazans are emigrating. These datasets often lack detailed information on the demographics, motivations, and intended destinations of migrants, complicating efforts to fully understand the phenomenon
- What is clear, though–from Palestine-wide statistics, opinion polls, and asylum applications in Europe–is that as of the time of data collection (2018-19), many Gazans wanted to leave, and many had already left.
- This desire to leave marks a significant change from the past, when leaving Gaza carried a stigma, to the current scenario where families encourage their children to migrate in search of better opportunities, despite the financial and emotional costs involved.
- The available data sources reveal high levels of motivation to migrate due to economic hardship, political instability, and the dire living conditions under the siege and threat of conflict.
This is why Procter’s qualitative study is so important: she is on the ground, gathering detailed data from a population that is understudied by quantitative measures.
Ultimately, Procter’s study wants to elevate the role of coercion in immigration debates. For Procter, the concept of coerced migration, particularly as it applies to Gaza, is rooted in the understanding that a coercive environment is intentionally created to make it nearly impossible for civilians to remain in their homes. This environment is characterized by involuntary displacement, where individuals have no real choice but to leave due to threats of violence, psychological oppression, or the abuse of power.
This leads her to critique several common concepts in migration, such as:
- The binary framing of “forced” versus “voluntary” migration that usually prevails in both scholarly and policy debates. She contends that these are too simplistic and fail to recognize the nuanced reasons behind migration decisions, including the coercive circumstances that often drive Palestinians to seek refuge abroad.
- This critique extends to the conceptualization of displacement, advocating for recognizing the diverse forms of coercion and power imbalances that contribute to displacement, and the necessity of identifying the coercive forces behind these movements.
By examining the experiences of Gazans who have reached Europe and the challenges they face in seeking asylum, Procter underscores the inadequacy of current migration labels to fully capture the complexities of their situations.
Procter argues that unlike other contexts where choice is absent, Gaza presents a scenario where choices do exist but are severely constrained by Israeli authorities, effectively coercing Palestinians into leaving. She lays out several key areas of oppression, bolstering her evidence with the personal experiences of her research participants. They include:
- History of Violence and Threat of Recurrence: Gaza has endured multiple military assaults over the years, with the physical and psychological scars affecting generations. The credible threat of future violence, underscored by the visible debris and ruins of past conflicts, creates an atmosphere of constant fear and insecurity. This impacts daily life and influences long-term decisions about staying or leaving.
- “Zanzana” – Drone Surveillance and Strikes: The omnipresent drone surveillance and the possibility of drone strikes add a layer of psychological oppression. The continuous buzzing sound serves as a constant reminder of surveillance and the potential for sudden violence, impacting mental health and contributing to a state of perpetual anxiety among residents.
- Targeting of Healthcare Infrastructure: Deliberate attacks on healthcare facilities and the denial of essential services, including electricity and clean water, represent a form of “amplifier coercion.” By targeting the healthcare system, the broader population is indirectly coerced, as the degradation of healthcare services affects everyone’s well-being and survival, pushing people towards considering migration as an option for accessing basic healthcare.
- Exemplary Violence: Selective and demonstrative acts of violence, such as the targeted destruction of buildings, serve as stark reminders of the potential consequences of remaining in Gaza. This not only results in the loss of physical structures but also instills a sense of vulnerability and fear across the community, making the prospect of staying in Gaza increasingly untenable.
- Coercive Political Repression: The suppression of peaceful protests, such as the Great March of Return, through excessive use of force illustrates the extent of political repression. The failure of such protests to bring about change, coupled with the risks of participation, including injury or death, dissuades collective action and civic engagement, further pushing individuals towards migration as a form of protest or escape from repression.
- Economic Strangulation and De-development: The blockade and restrictions on Gaza have led to severe economic deprivation, characterized by high unemployment rates, restricted access to markets, and limited opportunities for economic growth. This economic stranglehold, coupled with the deliberate policies of de-development, undermines the potential for self-sustained economic development and forces individuals, especially the youth, to look for opportunities elsewhere.
- Lack of Employment Opportunities: Despite high levels of education and professional training among Gaza’s youth, the lack of employment opportunities within the enclave is stark. The mismatch between educational achievements and job availability creates a situation where young adults cannot envision a future in Gaza, compelling them to consider migration as a means to utilize their skills and achieve a semblance of normalcy and dignity in their lives.
By focusing on the role of coercion and the power dynamics at play, Procter argues that the situation in Gaza is a deliberate strategy by the Israeli government to create conditions so untenable that leaving becomes one of the few viable options for Palestinians. This perspective challenges the narrative of economic migration and highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of the forces driving Palestinians from Gaza to seek asylum abroad.
The conclusion calls for greater attention to the complexities of forced migration, urging a reevaluation of how migration from Gaza is understood and addressed by the international community, particularly in the context of asylum decision-making processes in Europe.
What Can You Do?
Procter writes in a heartbreaking afterword to her article:
This article was finalised at a time of absolute horror in Gaza, and for Palestine. All those involved in this research who I have been able to maintain contact with have been forcibly displaced, and at least two have been killed. May their voices and experiences contribute to the documentation of the histories that some seek to erase. I am profoundly grateful to all of the individuals in Gaza who gave up their time to speak with me. May their voices and experiences contribute to the documentation of the histories that some seek to erase.
There is only so much those of us in the Global North can do to help as Israeli forces increasingly encircle the remaining population of Gaza, raising the possibility of forced migration with no possibility of return–or worse. But at a minimum, readers can take the following actions:
- Educate and Inform: One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is awareness. Educate yourself and others about the situation in Gaza through reliable sources, scholarly articles, and firsthand accounts. By understanding the context, history, and nuances of the issues faced by the people of Gaza, you can help dispel myths and spread awareness about their plight.
- Support Humanitarian Aid: Donate to reputable NGOs and humanitarian organizations that are working on the ground in Gaza to provide essential services such as food, water, medical care, and shelter. Organizations like Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and the Red Cross/Red Crescent are actively involved in providing critical support.
- Advocate for Political Action: Contact your elected representatives to express your concerns about the situation in Gaza and advocate for political and diplomatic efforts to address the crisis. Encourage your government to support peace-building initiatives and to use their international influence to advocate for the rights and protection of civilians in conflict zones.
- Support Palestinian Voices: Amplify the voices of Palestinians by sharing their stories, articles, and reports on social media and within your community. Supporting Palestinian journalists, activists, and content creators can help bring their lived experiences to a broader audience.
- Participate in Peaceful Demonstrations: Join or organize peaceful protests and demonstrations that call for an end to violence and support the rights of Palestinians. Public demonstrations can raise awareness and pressure governments and international bodies to take action.
- Engage in Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue: Promote understanding and solidarity by participating in interfaith and intercultural exchanges that aim to bridge gaps between different communities. Such dialogues can foster a more nuanced understanding of the conflict and promote peace.
- Support Economic Empowerment: Consider supporting Palestinian businesses and cooperatives, especially those that are export-oriented. Purchasing Palestinian products or investing in Palestinian enterprises can contribute to economic resilience and empowerment for communities in Gaza and beyond.
Each of these actions can contribute to a broader effort to support the people of Gaza, advocating for their rights, and working towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Have you or someone you know been affected by the conditions in Gaza? How do you think the international community should respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? Discuss in the comments.
