Tucker Comparative Migration Studies (2018) 6:29 engage in open discussion using narratives and stories (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006). Narratives were central in the data collection, with participants being asked to describe their lived experience of Palestinian-ness/statelessness before they left Syria, through to their life in the destination country. While this often resulted in their reasons for choosing one country over another being raised, similar to the work of Brekke and Aarset (2009) in understanding Norway as an asylum destination, participants were asked ‘Why Sweden/Germany?’ to draw out more explicit responses. Care was taken not to lead the participants’ responses into preconceived notions of their decision-making process. Here the open ended narrative format proved very useful. For the majority of the interviews translators were used as the participants wished for it to take place in Arabic, though several interviews were conducted in English. A comparative analysis of one stateless group in two destination countries was decided upon for this research for several reasons. First, gaining a breadth of understanding by looking at different national contexts was important as research on stateless refugees’ asylum destination decisions had yet to be undertaken. This exploratory research therefore sought to begin to unpack if and how statelessness impacted asylum destination decision making, then to compare this to the already developed body of literature on refugees’ decision-making in general. Second, the comparative approach meant that this understanding would not be limited within a specific national context (Green, 1994). Third, Germany and Sweden make for interesting and highly relevant contexts given the large number of refugees they receive in comparison to other European states and Sweden’s relatively liberal access to citizenship compared to Germany’s much more restrictive naturalisation regulations. There were limitations to the research that should be made explicit. First, the sample was small, especially in the case of Germany. The larger number of participants in Sweden was due to the ease at which they could be identified and accessed. It may also relate to the larger numbers of those of interest to this research in Sweden as compared to Germany - though this cannot be stated with certainty given the lack of data. Geography played a role here as well. In Sweden refugees are more geographically concentrated in or around the four largest cities. In Germany identifying participants proved more challenging due their geographic dispersal and fewer connections on which the researchers could draw. In addition to this, given the focus of the research is on Germany and Sweden, the research only includes those who have ‘made it’, or in several cases, nearly made it. Why here? Unpacking the asylum destination decisions The search for citizenship How the participants conceptualised their statelessness, and how this changed over time, should be considered, as this allows for a more in-depth understanding of their desire to acquire citizenship. When the participants reflected on their life in Syria before the conflict, all of them noted that they saw little difference in their treatment as compared to Syrian citizens. Several claimed that, while recognising that they did not have a ‘homeland’, they did not feel ‘stateless’ in Syria. The only difference they could recall was their lack of voting rights. However, there was a clear distinction drawn between their situation pre-and post 2011. After 2011 when the Palestinians began to be targeted by state and non-state actors, the participants recalled how they felt ‘stateless’ or ‘not Syrian’ for the first time. Before the war Page 6 of 17