Nevertheless, renting temporary accommodation in Hitteen or elsewhere is practiced, as seen earlier, by young men who relocate temporarily for work and the private transfers they provide are often crucial to the welfare of those that remain in Jerash camp. Beyond the immediate expense of the move, ex-Gazans not registered with UNRWA in particular face additional expenses for basic services — such as healthcare — if they move out of the camps: some would become ineligible for services from UNRWA health clinics189 while for others, simply the distance from an UNRWA clinic would limit their access to healthcare. They would also be further removed from the concentration of poverty support services in Jerash camp, while remaining unable to access government programmes and being distanced from the important social networks which provide many in Jerash with support. Thus, without either a well-paid stable or permanent job or accumulated savings moving out of Jerash camp was perceived as financially untenable for many. Sociality and networks Beyond an aspiration to ‘leave the camp’ to better their situation, many interviewees, when asked if they had or would consider moving, said they would not, despite better work opportunities elsewhere and even if they could afford to do so. The reasons rested primarily on the existence of strong social and family ties within the camp, and the fear that they would lack and not be able to re-establish such networks elsewhere. As a middleaged woman exclaimed: ‘No, I would not leave! Where you were born, you like to remain. I prefer to have my family and relatives and friends around me’ 190. As we have already seen (in chapter 2), ex-Gazans in Jerash in particular, are slightly more likely to have been born in the camp where they currently reside. This can be partly explained through the limited outside-camp opportunities available to ex-Gazans in Jerash; however, we also see low levels of intermarriage between both ex-Gazans and other Palestinian refugees and ex-Gazans reporting to originate from different areas of historical Palestine. In addition, in more than three quarters of all couples (77.8%), both partners originate from the camp itself. These may be indications, as also voiced by several interviewees, that the camp’s economic isolation is associated with a degree of social insularity. We know that networks of family and friends play a key role in supporting Jerash families, as is the case amongst other groups of refugees in Jordan (Calhoun, 2010), with a significantly higher proportion of households receiving financial or in-kind assistance from relatives in Jordan than residents in the other camps, ex-Gazans and other Palestinian refugees alike (chapter 3, Table 9). Some interviewees emphasised their relations with neighbouring villages and residents of Souf camp, while assistance from sons or brothers outside of the camp was considered essential to the wellbeing of some families 191. However, others suggested that there are in fact few families with immediate relatives outside the camp. This gives credence to earlier suggestions that the high levels of family support reported by Jerash residents are primarily an intra-camp network of support and that rather than bringing money from outside into the camp it is simply a redistribution or circulation of the limited money already within the camp. Several interviewees, for example, ‘Displaced’ ex-Gazans who are not registered with UNRWA as a ‘Palestine refugee’ but who live in an official camp are still eligible for some preventative health care at the UNRWA clinic in that camp. 189 Female, age 55, Jerash camp, 31 January 2016. For example, one interviewee’s brother had moved out of Jerash and opened a business with a friend closer to Hitteen. Earning 400 JD per month, he is able to send 100 JD per month to his parents in Jerash camp. Male, age 32, Jerash camp, 3 February 2016. 190 191 ‘Just getting by’ Ex-Gazans in Jerash and other refugee camps in Jordan 111