The Impact of the Involuntary Mass ‘Return’ to Jordan in the Wake of the Gulf Crisis 1

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of the involuntary movement to Jordan of about 300,000 Palestinians in the wake of the Gulf crisis of 1990–91. It explores the character of the population that arrived en masse in Jordan and whether their arrival burdened or benefitted that country. Neither migrants as commonly conceived nor a fully settled minority community in Kuwait and other Gulf states, their case throws doubt on the utility of terms like return and repatriation since a substantial proportion of this population had only minimal experience of Jordan, the ‘home’ to which they ‘returned.’ The involuntary migration compounded other effects of the Gulf crisis on Jordan and exacerbated the country's already serious economic problems. Integration of the returnees was painful. But contrary to initial expectations, the mass arrival did not result in unmitigated disaster and may have contributed to an economic recovery in Jordan, suggesting that there may be potentially beneficial windfall effects of sudden population influxes, even when they are involuntary and disorderly.