The ‘Supporting Syria and the Region’ conference in London in 2016 set an ambitious target to create up to 1.1 million new jobs for refugees and host communities by 2018—but there was no clarity around how, where, and for whom these jobs would be created. A 2016 joint...
JDC Literature Review
Results for: Integration, Inclusion and Social Cohesion
Syrian Refugee Entrepreneurship in Turkey – Integration and the Use of Immigrant Capital in the Informal Economy
This article examines small-scale entrepreneurship of Syrian refugees in three Turkish cities: Istanbul, Gaziantep, and Hatay. The author uses ‘forms of capital’ as an analytical frame, encompassing: (a) economic capital; (b) social capital; (c) cultural capital...
Cities as a Refuge, Cities as a Home: The Relationship between Place and Perceptions of Integration among Urban Displaced Populations in Iraq
Cities in Iraq have absorbed the majority of IDPs since the beginning of the ISIL conflict in early 2014—at the peak of the conflict only 12 percent of the 3.4 million IDPs settled in camps while 88 percent settled in urban areas. By the end of 2018 there were 1.8...
The Labor Market Integration of Refugees to the United States: Do Entrepreneurs in the Network Help?
The paper examines whether entrepreneurs in the social network of refugees, from the same country of origin, facilitate refugees’ labor-market integration by hiring them in their businesses. The authors analyze the universe of refugee cases without ties to the United...
Obstacles to Refugees’ Self-Reliance in Germany
This article discusses the impediments to refugees’ employment and self-reliance in Germany. The majority of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany rely on government welfare. There are many practical barriers to work including: (a) access to government language...
Refugees and Host Communities in the Rwandan Labour Market
This article highlights findings from household surveys of Congolese refugees in three of the largest refugee camps in Rwanda (Gihembe, Kiziba and Kigeme) and of locals living nearby. The authors find that although Congolese refugees officially have the right to work,...
Integrating Refugees into the Turkish Labour Market
Turkey hosts nearly 3.3 million registered refugees, mostly from Syria, concentrated in provinces with lower labor force participation and higher unemployment rates than the national average. In 2016 the Turkish government passed a regulation to allow Syrian refugees...
Refugees’ Right to Work and Access to Labour Markets: Constraints, Challenges and Ways Forward
While the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) provides for a refugee’s right to work, most countries are reluctant to give refugees access to the labor market and impose restrictions on legal entitlements to work. Restrictive...
Refugee Economies in Kenya
Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in and around Kakuma refugee camps and Nairobi, this report examines variations in economic outcomes within the refugee population, and between refugee and host communities in Kenya in terms of livelihoods, living...
Thrive or Survive? Explaining Variation in Economic Outcomes for Refugees
The paper focuses on three questions: (1) what makes the economic lives of refugees distinctive from other populations; (2) what explains variation in refugees’ income levels; and (3) what role does entrepreneurship play in shaping refugees’ economic outcomes? In...