ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces Lebanon’s governance of Palestinian refugees. By exploring the national politics and policies through which Lebanon engages with the protracted Palestinian refugee presence in the country, the chapter reveals how the institutional ambiguity that defines Lebanon’s response to the Syrian refugee ‘crisis’ is institutionally prefigured by its experience with the Palestinian ‘issue.’ Drawing on literature review, document analysis, and key expert interviews, the chapter traces the roots of Lebanon’s ambiguous governance of refugees. Lebanon refuses the permanent settlement of Palestinians, but they are not able to return to Palestine either. The resulting ‘permanent temporariness’ leads Lebanon’s governing elites to produce and uphold legal limbo, spatial exceptionalism, and non-recognition of Palestinian representatives. This ambiguity generates protection gaps that facilitate extreme marginalization. Such repression through discretion allows for the control, exploitation, and expulsion of refugees. Ambiguity is thus politically expedient. The chapter demonstrates this through two vignettes that illustrate how attempts to formalize and regularize refugee governance are contested and sabotaged.
