The Government of Jordan estimates that around 1.3 million Syrian refugees have arrived in the country since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, of whom 660,000 have registered with UNHCR. This paper estimates the effect of a program to assist Syrian refugees and...
JDC Literature Review
Life out of the Shadows: Impacts of Amnesties in the Lives of Refugees
This paper estimates the causal effects on wellbeing of a regularization program offered to half a million undocumented Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. Colombia hosts almost two million Venezuelans displaced abroad. The Permiso Especial de Permanencia (PEP) grants...
The Economic Effects of Immigration Pardons: Evidence from Venezuelan Entrepreneurs
This paper analyzes the effect of an immigration pardon on immigrant entrepreneurship, by examining the effect of a pardon granted to about 300,000 undocumented Venezuelan immigrants in Colombia in 2018. Colombia hosts nearly two million Venezuelans, representing...
Attitudes and Policies toward Refugees: Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries
This paper examines the effect of refugee arrivals on attitudes toward immigrants in a global sample of low- and middle-income countries. The authors also explore whether these effects vary across camp and non-camp settings or across situations with progressive and...
Forced Displacement and Asylum Policy in the Developing World
This paper analyzes the correlates of asylum policymaking in low- and middle-income countries, which host more than 85 percent of refugees and asylum seekers globally. The authors also examine the role of de jure policies as pull factors in flows of forced migration....
Global Refugee Work Rights Report
This report assesses refugees’ work rights both in law (de jure) and in practice (de facto) across 51 countries, which together hosted 87 percent of the world’s refugees at the end of 2021. The report also analyses additional factors that are critical to refugees’...
The double burden of female protracted displacement: Survey evidence on gendered livelihoods in El Fasher, Darfur
This paper examines the effect of gender and forced displacement on livelihood outcomes in El Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur region in Sudan. There are approximately 160,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in the Abu Shouk and El Salam camps (IOM,...
The labor market reintegration of returned refugees in Afghanistan
This paper investigates the labor market outcomes of returned refugees in Afghanistan. The authors examine the factors influencing the labor market outcomes of returned refugees compared to non-migrants, and in particular, whether the returnees’ migration and return...
Refugees who mean business: Economic activities in and around the Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh
As of May 2021, there were 867,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (UNHCR, 2021). Only about 50,000 Rohingya refugees from earlier (pre-August 2017) caseloads have been granted refugee status, allowing them to...
The economics of the Syrian refugee crisis in neighbouring countries: The case of Lebanon
This paper examines the economic and social impact of the Syrian war and refugee flows on Lebanon. The authors employ a dynamic general equilibrium model to capture forced displacement, discrimination, and segmented labor markets (distinguishing formal and informal...