This paper examines the impact of hosting refugees on the intra-household allocation of tasks across genders in Tanzania. In the early 1990s, more than 800,000 refugees from Burundi and Rwanda sought refuge in western Tanzania, many settling in the Kagera region.
Exploiting the exogenous nature of the location of refugee camps in Kagera, the authors employ a difference-in-differences strategy that compares pre-shock (i.e., 1991) and post- shock (i.e., 2004) periods. They examine the impact of the refugee shock on three categories of household tasks: (1) unpaid household chores, specifically fetching water and collecting firewood; (2) farming, including cultivation for both household consumption and for income-generating purposes; and (3) outside employment, including as an employee or self- employed person. The analysis is based on the Kagera Health Development Survey (KHDS) for 1991-1993 and 2004, which covered 51 communities spread across all districts of Kagera.
Main results:
- The refugee shock led to women being more likely to engage in household chores and farming, and less likely to engage in employment outside the household relative to men. The presence of refugees leads to women being close to 9 percentage points more likely to engage in farming and fetching water/collecting firewood and 18 percentage points less likely to engage in outside employment than men.
- The results differ by (pre-shock) literacy and math skill. For women who could read and perform simple written mathematical operations the refugee shock resulted in a higher likelihood of engaging in outside employment. In contrast, higher exposure to the refugee shock resulted in illiterate women being more likely to engage in farming and household chores.
- The results are substantially different across the age cohorts. The results appear to be driven by those 30 years of age or younger. For those over 30 the refugee shock does not have much of a gender-specific effect.
- The refugee shock appears to have an impact on girls by raising their participation in household chores. Higher household exposure to the refugee shock is associated with girls dedicating additional time to outside employment and collecting firewood/fetching water relative to boys. The refugee shock has no impact on school attendance, which suggests that the increase in time dedicated to other activities does not come at the expense of schooling.
The analysis demonstrates that hosting refugees had different impacts on tasks and time allocation for women and men. In general, greater exposure to the refugee shock resulted in women being less likely to engage in outside employment and more likely to engage in household chores and farming compared to men. This is likely due to the additional competition for natural resources represented by refugees and the need to walk further to find firewood and water. The analysis also reveals that the impact of the shock on women varied across literacy and skill levels, with women who could read and perform simple mathematical operations being more likely to gain outside employment because of the refugee shock. The authors conclude that these women were better able to take advantage of the additional supply of cheap labor by refugees to help with household chores. In contrast, illiterate women were more likely to engage in farming or collecting firewood/fetching water.