There are about 2 million Palestinians in Jordan, and the kingdom treats them as two different groups. The first arrived in Jordan after the 1948 war. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines them as refugees, and they have Jordanian citizenship.

The second group arrived after the 1967 war. Defined as “displaced persons” who came from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, they do not enjoy full citizenship and hold a temporary Jordanian passport that must be renewed every two years. They cannot work in state institutions, but only in the private sector without official work permits from the government.

These Palestinians are only allowed to study in public universities, where they enroll within a parallel education system for foreigners. In this context, thousands of Palestinian students who do not have a national ID or Jordanian nationality are treated as foreign students and pay university fees in US dollars instead of the Jordanian dinar, like Jordanian students. This extra cost further adds to the financial problems of Palestinian students, who cannot afford to enroll in private universities.

The Jordanian state started distinguishing between refugees (who have Jordanian citizenship) and displaced persons (who hold a temporary passport) after Jordan's late King Hussein bin Talal announced the disengagement between Jordan and the West Bank at the request of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1988.