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Summary of "Jobs Interventions for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons"

Core Content

This working paper by Kirsten Schuettler and Laura Caron provides a comprehensive review of the literature on jobs interventions for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), with a focus on the challenges they face in labor market integration and the effectiveness of various interventions.

Main Points

• Labor Market Integration Challenges: Refugees and IDPs face significant barriers to integrating into the labor market, including loss of assets, lack of skills and language proficiency, psychological health issues, legal restrictions, and limited social networks.
• Contextual Differences: The challenges differ between refugees and IDPs, as well as between high- and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). In LMICs, most refugees and IDPs live, but much of the existing research is concentrated in high-income settings.
• Impact of Forced Displacement: Studies show that forced displacement is associated with lower employment rates, lower wages, and longer integration times compared to local populations and economic migrants.
• Need for Policy Interventions: Given the long-term nature of displacement and the shift towards development-oriented policies, there is a growing need for effective job interventions tailored to the unique needs of refugees and IDPs.
• Types of Interventions: The paper reviews several types of job interventions, including financial capital injections, human capital investments, legal framework changes, job search assistance, and subsidized employment.

Key Challenges

Job Interventions and Their Impacts

1. Financial Capital Interventions

• Repeated Cash Transfers, Vouchers, and In-Kind Transfers: These can help build financial resilience and support livelihood activities.
• One-Off Transfers and Complementary Interventions: Provide immediate relief but may need to be combined with other interventions to have lasting effects.

2. Human Capital Investments

• Skills Training and Recognition: Vocational and business training can improve employability, but the recognition of qualifications at destination remains a challenge.
• Language Training: Essential for better labor market integration, especially in LMICs where language barriers are significant.
• Mental Healthcare and Psychosocial Support: Critical to addressing the psychological impact of displacement and enabling economic participation.

3. Legal Framework Changes

• Changing the legal status and residency rights of refugees and IDPs can significantly improve their access to the labor market and reduce discrimination.

4. Job Search Assistance and Coaching

• Intensive coaching and individualized support can help match refugees and IDPs with suitable employment opportunities.

5. Subsidized Employment

• Wage Subsidies in the Private Sector: Can encourage employers to hire refugees and IDPs.
• Cash for Work and Public Works: Useful in contexts where the private sector is not responsive, especially in LMICs.

6. Access to Markets

• Interventions that improve access to markets, such as value chain development and market-based livelihood approaches, can support sustainable employment.

Gaps and Recommendations

• Limited Rigorous Evidence: There is a lack of high-quality, experimental evidence on the effectiveness of job interventions for refugees and IDPs, especially in LMICs.
• Need for Context-Specific Interventions: Job interventions must be tailored to the specific challenges faced by refugees and IDPs, which vary by age, gender, skill level, and origin country.
• Comprehensive Approach: Combined interventions addressing multiple challenges (e.g., financial, legal, and social) are more likely to be effective.
• Future Research: More research is needed on the long-term impacts of job interventions, particularly in low- and middle-income host countries and on IDPs.

Conclusion

The paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the unique challenges faced by refugees and IDPs in the labor market and designing interventions that address these challenges. It calls for more rigorous research, especially in LMICs, and highlights the potential of combined, context-sensitive job interventions to improve labor market outcomes for displaced populations.

References

• UNHCR (2019): Global Trends: Forced displacement in 2019.
• Mejia-Mantilla et al. (2019): Labor market outcomes of refugees in Uganda.
• Pape, Petrini, and Iqbal (2018): Labor market outcomes of refugees in Ethiopia.
• Fiala (2009): Internal displacement and asset loss in Uganda.
• Ibanez and Moya (2007): Labor market outcomes of IDPs in Colombia.
• Torosyan, Pignatti, and Obrizan (2018): Labor market outcomes of IDPs in Georgia.
• Becker and Ferrara (2019): Review of labor market impacts of forced displacement.
• Blattman and Ralston (2015): Understanding jobs in low-income contexts.
• World Bank (2012): Definition of jobs in development contexts.

Annex

The annex includes a list of papers on evaluations of employment interventions in the context of forced displacement, providing a broader evidence base for the review.