1 Developed by: Enabling refugee integration and opportunity: A literature review 26 June 2019 Introduction The number of forcibly-displaced people around the world is at an all-time high, reaching 25.4m refugees, 3.1m asylum seekers and 40m internally-displaced persons (IDPs) by the end of 2017, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 85% of these are in developing countries. 1 Owing to long-term conflicts and the impacts of climate change, protracted rather than short-term displacement has become the norm. 2 Rather than keeping pace with rising demand, government contributions to humanitarian appeals have grown more slowly in recent years and funding for multi-year appeals is inadequate. 3 This has prompted a greater focus within humanitarian and development circles on how to enable those refugees who can to gain, and sustain, financial self- reliance—whether in their host countries or when re-integrating into their country of origin. The following literature review was commissioned by the Refugee Investment Network and developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit. It draws on over 40 publicly-available reports by international organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), financial institutions, practitioners and academics specialising in forced migration and impact investing, to identify factors relevant to enabling or accelerating the integration of refugees into host communities, leading to opportunity and self-reliance. Most sources cited support of the underlying thesis that the current global migration crisis can be transformed into an economic opportunity, given the right political will, policies, laws, programmes and financial sector involvement. While interest is growing in how public, private and third sector actors can support refugee economic integration, significant information gaps remain regarding how well developed the various elements of the refugee support ecosystem currently are in different markets— including policies and regulations, investors and financial intermediaries, private-sector initiatives, support-to-work services and other factors. Gathering this information into an index comparable across markets will provide a tool allowing governments to understand weaknesses and target policy improvements; investors to spot opportunities and make better-informed decisions; and private and third sector actors to address gaps in service provision. Tracking the information over time will provide a longitudinal measure of improvements to the refugee integration environment. 1 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) UK. Figures at a glance. https://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-a- glance.html 2 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). May 2018. Confronting the global forced migration crisis. A report of the CSIS Task Force on the Global Forced Migration Crisis. https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs- public/publication/180529_Ridge_ForcedMigrationCrisi.pdf?xG6zs9dOHsV2fr2oCxYTT6oar049iLfA 3 Development Initiatives. 2018. Global humanitarian assistance report 2018. http://devinit.org/wp- content/uploads/2018/06/GHA-Report-2018.pdf
Enabling refugee integration and opportunity: A literature review
Jul 10, 2023
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