Tucker Comparative Migration Studies (2018) 6:29 Türk, & Nicholson, 2003; Goodwin-Gill & McAdam, 2007; Hathaway, 2005; Hathaway & Foster, 2014). Methods Understanding why stateless refugees sought asylum in certain places is by no means an easy task. However, by drawing on the narratives, explanations and perspectives of participants, we can begin to unpack the decision-making process of this under researched group. For the purposes of this analysis, the definition of a stateless person builds upon that of the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, to which both Germany and Sweden are state parties, namely, “... a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law” (United Nations General Assembly, 1954, Art. 1.1). All but one of the participants had been classified as ‘refugees’ in Germany or Sweden, though they held different residency statuses. One woman was on a student visa living with her husband who had refugee status. Palestinians constitute by far the largest stateless population globally, as well as being one of the largest refugee populations (ISI, 2014). As such, they provide a useful point of departure to explore statelessness and refugee-ness. Palestinian refugees can and often do self-identify as Palestinian/stateless, with many being able to prove this with documentary evidence. In addition, the authorities in Germany and Sweden know of and recognise Palestinians as stateless. Therefore, in terms of beginning to understand the impact of statelessness on refugees they are one of the few ‘identified’ stateless refugee populations, making them distinguishable from non-stateless refugees. Diversity, in terms of age, sex, family situation, socio-economic background and migration history was sought when participants were selected. Eleven participants were interviewed in Germany (four women and seven men), in nine interview sessions (one interview was with a married couple and another was with an aunt and her nephew). Twenty-two people were interviewed in Sweden (seven women and fifteen men) during eighteen interview sessions (two were held with married couples, one with a mother and son and another was with two friends). The ages of those interviewed ranging from nineteen to seventy one years old. The interviews took place between February and December 2017. The vast majority of the interviews were undertaken by the Palestinian League for Human Rights-Syria, as part of their research on the protection gaps faced by PRS. Only two were undertaken by myself as part of another ongoing project.1 With regard to my involvement in the data collection process, I acted as an advisor to the Palestinian League for Human Rights-Syria research project. I worked closely with the researcher conducting the interviews before, during and after the data collection. This included determining the research questions and adapting the research as new themes emerged that required further exploration. Partnering with the Palestinian League for Human Rights-Syria meant that their well-developed network could be utilised in a snowball sampling technique. To ensure confidentiality, pseudonyms have been used and any information that would allow the participants to be identified has not been published. Given that the research was exploratory, semi-structured in-depth interviews were chosen as the method of data collection. This meant that while some pre-determined broad themes could be focused on, there was significant scope for the participants to Page 5 of 17