Research Report
Research Team
Nasser Yassin, Director of Research, Refugee Research and Policy Program, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI), AUB
Yara Mourad, Program Manager, Refugee Research and Policy Program, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI), AUB
Maysa Baroud, Project Coordinator, Refugee Research and Policy Program, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI), AUB
Widyan Al Shaar, Research Assistant, Refugee Research and Policy Program, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI), AUB
Refugee Research and Policy Program, July 2019
Background
Political volatility across the globe has led to increasing levels of forcible displacement; the UNHCR state that 68.5 million people had been subject to such displacement by 2017 (UNHCR, 2018). The Middle East region has been deeply affected by such displacement given on-going conflict across the region prompting far reaching socio-economic upheaval with a devastating impact upon refugees; (Dinçer et al, 2013; UNHCR, 2018). Displacement is a persistent and damaging problem for refugees; in turn, much mass movement also disrupts the socio-economic stability of host nations. With the on-going conflict and related volatility engulfing the Middle East region, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are amongst the world’s top 10 refugee host countries (Amnesty International, 2016). Despite their appearance as relatively stable socio-political economies, they are greatly challenged by rising unemployment, poverty, inflation and social tensions (Oktav and Çelikaksoy, 2015) often attributed to the overwhelming number of refugees. For example, in Jordan and Lebanon, there are demographic majorities of displaced and refugee people (Davies, 2014; Fisk, 2010), and within Turkey’s southern border cities, radical changes in their socio-economic profiles are evident, due to the considerable on-going infiltration of Afghani, Iraqi, Syrian and other refugees.