At the 2016 donor conference in London, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey committed to improving economic opportunities for Syrian refugees; and Jordan announced a compact to provide 200,000 work permits for Syrian refugees. By January 2018, 80,000 work permits were...
JDC Literature Review
Refugees and Decent Work – Lessons Learned from Recent Refugee Jobs Compacts
This paper examines refugee livelihoods from a labor standards perspective. The author presents case studies of the work aspects of the Jordanian and Ethiopian job compacts, and distils lessons learned about how to integrate refugees into host country labor markets in...
Impact of the Regulatory Environment on Refugees’ and Asylum Seekers’ Ability to Use Formal Remittance Channels
This report examines the impact of regulations and regulatory policies on a refugee’s ability to send and receive formal, cross-border remittances, drawing on seven country case studies (Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the...
Towards a Refugee Livelihoods Approach – Findings from Cameroon, Jordan, Malaysia and Turkey
This article discusses research on the livelihoods of non-camp refugees in four protracted displacement contexts: Cameroon, Jordan, Malaysia and Turkey. The research explores how different policy environments and institutional capacities affect refugee livelihoods....
The Gig Economy in Complex Refugee Situations
This article explores the challenges and opportunities presented by the gig economy for Syrian refugees in Jordan. Research with Syrian female refugees in Jordan suggests that, despite significant challenges, the gig economy (where workers and purchasers of their...
Estimating Poverty for Refugee Populations: Can Cross-Survey Imputation Methods Substitute for Data Scarcity?
Refugees are, for the most part, excluded from global poverty statistics, due to the lack of micro survey data on displaced populations. This paper presents the first application of recent advances in cross-survey imputations to estimate poverty among Syrian refugees...
Quality of Work for Syrian Refugees in Jordan
Over 100,000 work permits have been issues to Syrian refugees in Jordan as of May 2018, providing an indicator of formalization of employment but not necessarily job creation nor quality of work. This article makes the case that obtaining a work permit is only the...
The Structure of Employment and Job Creation in Jordan 2010-2016
This paper examines trends in the structure of employment and job creation in Jordan from 2010 to 2016, in the context of declining rates of employment growth due to a slowdown in economic growth, the influx of large numbers of Syrian refugees, and the growth in the...
School-to-Work Transition in Jordan, 2010-2016
This paper examines the transition of young Jordanians from school into the labor market between 2010 to 2016 in the context of a demographic shock due to the influx of Syrian refugees and slowdown in economic growth. The analysis is based on data from the Jordan...
Syrian Refugees: Limited Participation in Jordan’s Labour Force
This article discusses the reasons for the low labour force participation among Syrian refugees in Jordan; 77 percent of Syrian refugees are out of the labor force. Working illegally and informally remains common among Syrian refugees in Jordan, despite the work...