9 Moving out of Jerash camp ‘My dream is to leave the camp, to move to the edge of the camp […] at least.’178 Jerash residents almost uniformly agree that better employment opportunities exist in Amman, and that ex-Gazans living in Hitteen camp — including relatives — fare better. One former Jerash camp resident moved to Amman in 2001 because ‘Amman is better than Jerash, in terms of transport, in terms of services — in education, in health — all services here are better, so we came here; also, because universities are closer, schools are closer’ 179. Another woman from Jerash who is now married and living in Hitteen camp, explained: I wish my family would leave Jerash camp. Firstly, services here [in Hitteen] are better; in Jerash the services are non-existent. Jerash is poor, if you walk through it, you will see the sewers 180 and the children running around them, dirty clothing, you feel they are behind us culturally even. Here it is closer to Zarqa, to Rusaifeh, we are a bit more advanced, even in the way they dress, in the way they speak. For example, they [in Jerash] wait for the vegetables to get cheaper to buy it. Here, if my husband gets me bad tomatoes, I wouldn’t like it; over there [in Jerash], they wait for the good tomatoes to be sold so they can buy the box of bad tomatoes for half a JD. They don't have money there! Look at the streets, young men are in the streets all the time. There is no work! I wish my parents would leave, I tell my brothers who are educated, there are better job opportunities for them here because we are closer to Amman and Zarqa. Here we’re closer to transport, closer to work, closer to services! 181 We cannot gauge how many former Jerash camp residents have moved out of the camp. But given the better opportunities and services elsewhere, do current Jerash camp residents more generally aspire to move to Amman or elsewhere, including other camps closer to urban centres? A number of ex-Gazans interviewed in Hitteen had originally settled in Jerash, moving to Hitteen and buying allotted plots from other refugees in the early 1970s 182, and we were also told that since then ‘many people left and now live in Khebret al-Souq [neighbourhood of south-east Amman]’ 183. A group of young men from Jerash rented accommodation together in Hitteen in order to avoid the costs of commuting to the factories in Zarqa 184. However, ex-Gazans in general, and ex-Gazans in Jerash in particular, are slightly more likey to have been born in the camp where they currently reside (82% of ex-Gazans in Male, age 26, Hitteen camp, 21 February 2016. Focus group discussion with men, Hitteen camp, 14 February 2016. 180 Until the recently completed SDC-DPA project to install an underground sewerage system and rehabilitate the water supply network in Jerash camp (SDC 2017), the vast majority of Jerash households were not connected to sewerage systems. 181 Female, age 35, Hitteen camp, 15 February 2016. 182 Through the comprehensive camp survey, we can identify the time of moving into the camps for current residents, but it does not capture those who have left the camps. 183 Female, age 39, Jerash camp, 19 January 2016. 184 Male, age 40s, Manshiyyeh, 31 January 2016. 178 179 ‘Just getting by’ Ex-Gazans in Jerash and other refugee camps in Jordan 109