Gender and Migration: the Case of Beit Hanina

The aim of the research project is to explore gender relations in the Palestinian village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, by focusing on the changes that have taken place in the experiences of the three different social groups living there: the native emigrants-returnees, the native stayers, and the internal immigrants. The first group, the emigrants-returnees, are those who emigrated to the United States, and return as visitors or return immigrants; they usually have some property ownership in the village and are often related to the native stayers. The second group, the native stayers, is the native population of the village that has not emigrated to the United States, and is a minority, both within the permanent resident population (natives and internal migrants), and within the general native village population (native stayers and native emigrants). They, like the native emigrants, have property ownership in the village. The third group, the internal immigrants, are people who have moved into the village for different reasons; they are a diverse group, and have often bought or rented their property from the natives, and now make up the majority of the population. The purpose is to study the social interactions—such as exchange, competition, conflict, cooperation, and accommodation—between these different groups as well as within each group; as well as how they have changed the communities’ perceptions of gender and gender relations.