Dear colleague,

Based on feedback, we will have this monthly e-mail from the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement evolve into more of a newsletter. The core will remain the Literature Review, but we will also be offering brief updates on the Center’s most recent efforts in drawing more attention and great minds to the challenges around (data on) forced displacement. Please let us know what you think!

Björn Gillsäter
Head of the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement

January’s Literature Review

This month’s issue of the Literature Review features studies on behavioral aspects of displacement, mobility and social integration, aspects of refugee repatriation, and economic impacts on host communities, several of which were presented at the recent Research Conference on Forced Displacement (see below).

Three papers examine the impact of refugee flows on host communities. Altindag, Bakis and Rozo (2020) find that large inflows of Syrian refugees into Turkey have had a positive impact on local businesses and firm creation, largely concentrated in the informal economy, while reducing employment and wages of Turkish workers in the informal sector. Tumen (2020) finds that academic performance of Turkish adolescents improved following the Syrian refugee influx, suggesting that labor market forces have led Turkish adolescents to take their high school education more seriously. And Murard and Sakalli (2020) examine the long-term impact of the 1923 forced resettlement of 1.2 million Greek-Orthodox citizens of Turkey to Greece following the Greco-Turkish war. The authors find that refugees contributed to higher industrialization and structural transformation away from agriculture in rural localities, driven by the transfer of expertise in textiles and new agricultural methods.

You will find the full January issue of the Forced Displacement Literature Review attached to this letter.

For a compiled version of previous literature reviews, featuring over 300 articles on forced displacement, click here. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions for future issues, either to Zara Sarzin [email protected] or myself at [email protected].

Research Conference on Forced Displacement 2020

On January 16-18, 2020 a group of 130 academics, policy makers and practitioners gathered in Copenhagen to discuss the latest data and evidence on Forced Displacement. Over the course of 2,5 days, 37 presentations were held featuring 33 research papers, books and data sets.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, set the stage in a vibrant conversation on the importance of reliable data in both discourse and response to forcibly displaced populations. Co-founder of the fact tank Gapminder and author of the book Factfulness, Ola Rosling, held an inspiring and interactive session on the human misconceptions of displacement. A dedicated Policy Session shed light on both host countries’ and practitioners’ perspectives, before handing over the stage to authors of the selected papers to present their work in sessions on Movement, Effects on Forcibly Displaced, Effects on Hosts, Effects on Children and Women, and Measurement.

We extend our thanks to all participants in the room and online for sharing your knowledge and staying engaged throughout. We aim to make this conference a recurring event so please look out for future announcements.

For more information on the proceedings, visit the Events Page where you will find the full program and access to recorded sessions.