51. Yousef, H. The Demography of the Arab Refugee Camps of the West Bank. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy faculty of social sciences, department of geography, University of Durham, England, 1989.

This thesis deals with the demography of the West Bank refugee camps. It comprises an introduction, 12 chapters and a conclusion. and is based both on the limited data published by UNRWA, the Israeli authorities, and on the detailed information obtained by the author from a survey which he conducted in 1987.
The introduction deals with the motives for undertaking the study, its structure, and the sample survey carried out by the author. It seeks to investigate the nature of the refugee camps, to analyze the factors affecting them since 1948, and to understand the present conditions of the refugee camp populations. The second chapter is devoted to the political developments which led to the emergence of the state of Israel and the Palestinian refugees. It also describes the distribution and the growth of the refugee population. The next four chapters are dedicated to describing the spatial distribution of the refugee camps on the West Bank, the origins of their populations, UNRWA and its services, and the housing conditions in the refugee camps. These chapters also serve as a background for the rest of the thesis.
The next three chapters are dedicated to vital statistics of the refugee camp population including population growth; fertility, mortality and emigration. The next four chapters are devoted to the population structure, age-sex, marriage, economic, and educational status. A closing chapter summarizes the consequences of long-term camp confinement on the camp population, and concludes that any serious solution to the refugee camp problems and those of their populations depends mainly on future political developments in the Middle East.