‘I Must Be from Somewhere. I’m Not from the Moon’ Palestinians. 56 UNRWA imposed the label of the operational context where the refugees, or their forbearers, were originally registered, upon them. Palestinian Syrians thus belong in Syria, with bureaucratic systems being created to ensure as much. Those participants who did manage to be registered were registered as Palestinian Syrians and they claimed to have received less assistance and protection compared to Lebanese Palestinians. For example, they said that, even when registered, they faced greater barriers in accessing public health services and more restricted freedom of movement, which was essential for accessing various services. This was due to a combination of legal restraints by the Lebanese Government, lack of funding and discrimination by a range of actors and organisations, including some Lebanese Palestinians. This subcategorisation was rejected and resisted by those participants whose journeys took them through Lebanon. When in contact with UNRWA, participants claimed to emphasise their Palestinianness and argued that their Syrianness should be seen as inconsequential (thus, hoping to receive assistance on par with Lebanese Palestinians). For others, it was claimed that UNRWA either refused to register them or they themselves refused to be registered as PRS rather than just as a Palestinian in Lebanon, for various reasons. D Risk Taking Behaviour and ‘Illegality’ as a Consequence of Their Exceptionalism Some participants recalled that their exclusion from the privileges received by other refugees/stateless people forced them to undertake dangerous forms of resistance to ensure that they, or their children, received labels relating to their refugeeness or statelessness. For example, Omar was not able to register the birth of his child in Lebanon. 57 This would have meant that the child would not have any bureaucratic label as PRS and could not be included on the family registration card issued by UNRWA. To avoid this situation, Omar and his family briefly returned to Syria. ‘We just went to [Syria] … and got a legal passport. We got [our] passports in a legal way; but to register our child, that had to be done in an illegal way. We paid money for that.’ 58 This reflects the importance Omar placed on his child being labelled as PRS, rather than letting them be without bureaucratic labels. It was so important that the family undertook the extremely risky and costly journey back to Syria to illegally register his child as having been born there so that the child could receive some documentation stating that they were PRS. Omar knew that his child having this document would not mean that the child would receive any label in Lebanon. It did, however, allow him and his partner to prove that the child was theirs when they took their onward migration to Europe. 56 57 58 See Raed Eshnaiwer, ‘Palestinian Refugees from Syria (PRS) in Jordan: The State of Exclusivism’ (Working Paper Series RSCAS 2015/92, European University Institute 2015) <http://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/37967/RSCAS_2015_91.pdf?sequence=1&isA llowed=y>. Interview with Omar, 40 years old from Yarmouk (Tom Rollins, 23 April 2017). See also Birth Registration Update: The Challenges of Birth Registration in Lebanon for Refugees from Syria (Report, Norwegian Refugee Council 2015) <https://www.nrc.no/resources/reports/the-challenges-of-birth-registration-in-lebanon-forrefugees-from-syria/>. Interview with Omar, 40 years old from Yarmouk (Tom Rollins, 23 April 2017). 341