This paper examines the factors that shape aspirations to return home for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Syrian refugees in Lebanon are subject to a range of hardships, restrictions, and barriers to integration, including difficulties associated with obtaining...
JDC Literature Review
Deconstructing borders: Mobility strategies of South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda
Uganda currently hosts more than 880,000 South Sudanese refugees, mostly in its northern districts. Refugees are permitted to work and move freely, and consequently there is interaction with surrounding host communities. Refugees are also free to settle independently...
Living Conditions and Settlement Decisions of Recent Afghan Returnees: Findings from a 2018 Phone Survey of Afghan Returnees and UNHCR data
More than 2 million displaced Afghans have returned to Afghanistan between 2014 and 2016, the majority from Pakistan, including over half a million registered refugees who returned under UNHCR’s voluntary return program. This report describes and analyzes the living...
Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019
The report presents data compiled by UNHCR on forced displacement in 2019 due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. This year’s report includes analysis of displacement trends over the past decade. Key...
The impacts of refugee repatriation on receiving communities
Between 2000 and 2016 around 600,000 Burundian refugees returned from Tanzania, the majority before 2010, with most settling in their communities of origin. This paper examines the consequences of refugee repatriation for communities of return in Burundi, in a context...
Matching Refugees to Host Country Locations Based on Preferences and Outcomes
The idea of refugee matching is to select resettlement locations that are likely to be a good fit for a given refugee to thrive. Research has shown that the place of initial settlement has a profound impact on the long-term integration success of refugees [see for...
Dynamic Refugee Matching
Asylum seekers are often assigned to a locality in their host country based on uninformed random mechanisms, which do not consider the characteristics of the asylum seekers in the matching process. Consequently, this approach may lead to an inefficient and unfair...
Improving Refugee Integration through Data-driven Algorithmic Assignment
When refugees are resettled in third countries, resettlement countries do not fully leverage the factors that promote refugee integration such as: (1) geographical context (e.g. economic and social opportunities available in resettlement locations); (b) personal...
The Return to Big City Experience: Evidence from Danish Refugees
The authors exploit the random settlement policy for refugees in Denmark between 1986-1998 to examine the effect of locations on refugees’ wages. During this period, the Danish government assigned 80,000 refugees across 271 municipalities, in proportion to local...
Balancing the Rights of Displaced, Returning and Remaining Populations: Learning from Iraq
The return of 3.1 million IDPs to their places of origin in Iraq is seen as a benchmark of success. The article highlights critical questions related to mitigating competing rights and protection needs of those who stayed, returned IDPs, and those still displaced....