The Impact of Forced Displacement on Host Communities: A Review of the Empirical Literature in Economics

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Intergenerational Impact of Population Shocks on Children's Health: Evidence from the 1993–2001 Refugee Crisis in Tanzania

“…The question of whether refugee crises are beneficial or detrimental to the socio-economic well-being of host communities is a topic that has attracted substantial interest only in recent years and the evidence 3 is still limited to few and mostly short-term outcomes. A recent review of this literature finds that the probability of finding a negative and significant effect on household well-being among the host population is less than 20% and less than 30% if we consider employment or wage outcomes (Verme and Schuettler, 2019). The review also finds some evidence that negative effects tend to disappear over the long-term and are mainly associated with larger crises.…”

“…In some clusters, refugees outnumbered Tanzanians five to one (Whitaker, 2002) and by the end of May 1994, Benaco refugee camp located in Ngara cluster (Kagera region) was the largest in the world (see tables A1, A2 and figures A5, A6 in Annex A). This forced displacement crisis has been recently ranked as the largest in modern history in terms of share of refugees over the local population (Verme and Schuettler, 2019). The magnitude of such a sudden population shock was most likely to bring a profound change in the livelihood and economic activities of the hosts.…”

“…SeeVerme and Schuettler (2019) for a review of these models. 17 SeeVerme and Schuettler (2019) for a review of similar instruments.…”

Estimating Poverty for Refugee Populations: Can Cross-Survey Imputation Methods Substitute for Data Scarcity?

“…In 2014, Syrian refugees accounted for about 20% of the population of Lebanon and about 10% of the population in Jordan. The incidence of such immigration for these countries is among the highest ever recorded in history (Verme and Schuettler, 2019).…”

Understanding Decisions Made on Asylum Applications in Host Countries

“…The literature on refugees has been scarce for a long time before growing as a result of more frequent and important refugee crises around the world, and also more demand from policymakers seeking effective solutions (Verme and Schuettler, 2019). Although many countries, as the Geneva Convention for Refugees signatories, are keen to provide asylum, they are concerned about how to detect individuals in real need of protection and how to share large caseloads of asylum seekers with other countries.…”