The quest for socio-economic integration, for both forcibly displaced people and host communities, raises fundamental questions for all those involved in forced migration policy, practice and research about how displaced people can live with autonomy and dignity.
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FMR 71
Socio-economic integration: towards solutions for displaced people
January 2023
The quest for socio-economic integration, for both forcibly displaced people and host communities, raises fundamental questions for all those involved in forced migration policy, practice and research about how displaced people can live with autonomy and dignity.
The authors in FMR 71 share new perspectives on socio-economic integration that we hope can lead to a concrete and transformative shift in approaches. They reimagine the role of integration in responses to displacement, at a significant time of global change marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, urgent climate-related pressures and ongoing digital transformation. Most importantly, this issue includes displaced people’s voices and strategies in working towards solutions.
FMR 71
Socio-economic integration: towards solutions for displaced people
January 2023
The quest for socio-economic integration, for both forcibly displaced people and host communities, raises fundamental questions for all those involved in forced migration policy, practice and research about how displaced people can live with autonomy and dignity.
The authors in FMR 71 share new perspectives on socio-economic integration that we hope can lead to a concrete and transformative shift in approaches. They reimagine the role of integration in responses to displacement, at a significant time of global change marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, urgent climate-related pressures and ongoing digital transformation. Most importantly, this issue includes displaced people’s voices and strategies in working towards solutions.
Socio-economic integration: towards solutions for displaced people
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Contents
From the Editors
Foreword - Socio-economic integration: from crisis to opportunity
As emphasised by the Global Compact on Refugees and the UN Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement,[1] socio-economic integration is an essential springboard to a more sustainable approach. In tandem with essential humanitarian assistance, development policies that focus on meaningful social and economic inclusion can rebuild the lives of those forcibly displaced, while strengthening the communities in which they reside. Humanitarian assistance is critical in the first stages of displacement to save lives and foster stability. But ending displacement situations requires more than that. National and local governments need to make integration – or reintegration in the case of returnees – a priority.
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Socio-economic integration – what is it, and why does it matter?
Both academic and public debate tend to see refugee protection and durable solutions[1] as describing a relationship between nation-states and refugees. When a person’s country of citizenship is unable or unwilling to provide the most basic rights, people flee to another state to seek surrogate protection until they are able to return home or acquire effective membership of another state.
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Opening the global digital economy to refugees
There is no agreed definition of the ‘digital economy’ and the distinction between the digital and traditional economy is becoming increasingly blurred. Broadly speaking, the digital economy can be defined as incorporating all economic activity reliant on digital technology and can include jobs within and outside what we traditionally think of as the tech sector. Digital labour or jobs in the digital economy are wide-ranging, from on-demand logistics services like Uber and Deliveroo, micro-work such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and data tagging, income-generation activities on social media channels, online retail portals devoted to one-click consumption, and high-skilled knowledge workers such as researchers, web developers, virtual assistants, lawyers and accountants.
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Local integration, local settlement and local solutions: disentangling the conceptual confusion
The notion of ‘local integration’ is frequently used in relation to refugees, and yet it lacks any formal definition in international law. The lack of clarity surrounding the concept is reinforced by its frequent confusion with a related but different concept, that of ‘local settlement’. For the purposes of this article, local integration can be regarded as a process which leads to a durable solution for refugees, in the sense that it enables them to benefit from the permanent protection of the State which has granted them asylum.
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The role of social connections in refugees’ pathways towards socio-economic integration
The pivotal role of social connections in refugee integration has been long recognised as one of the key domains of the UK government’s Indicators of Integration framework, and has been widely explored by academic, practice and policy literature.[1] Social connections emphasise the importance of relationships between people to the process of integration, as these relationships can facilitate (and in some cases constrain) access to, use and exchange of resources. Social connections are also core to a sense of belonging and well-being for both refugees and other groups.
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Six years after the Jordan Compact: the effect of labour market policies on Syrians’ economic integration
The issues affecting refugees’ socio-economic integration are complex and multifaceted, requiring a whole-of-community approach. These factors include access to work, mobility, financial services, education, health, housing and social integration services, as well as issues related to social cohesion and tensions with host communities.
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How schools and other public services in the US can promote refugee integration
Services and policies need to be more thoughtfully designed to enable young refugees’
social and economic integration. This requires a better understanding of what constitutes
sustainable integration and what factors promote it.
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No financial inclusion without basic economic rights
Without access to basic economic rights, refugees will not be able to build self-reliance.
Case-studies from Kenya and Jordan show that providing financial services is not sufficient if
rights are absent.
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Transforming a refugee camp into a marketplace: lessons from Kenya
Donors, humanitarian agencies, development finance institutions and host countries are
looking to the private sector to play a key role in supporting refugees to integrate into host
communities.
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Public-private initiatives for local integration: evidence from Afghanistan and Kenya
Public-private partnerships are laying the foundations to enable sustainable and ethical
value chain approaches to be used in displacement-affected communities.
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Addressing challenges to integrating refugees in the Turkish labour market
Turkey’s large refugee population faces major challenges in accessing legal employment. Several legal measures could improve their situation.
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Barriers to socio-economic integration in India
The lack of defined systems of asylum management in India and other South Asian countries means that those in need of protection have been left without any legal avenues for
integration.
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“We are well able to stand on our own if we are given the opportunities”: perspectives from affected populations in Uganda
Persons affected by forced displacement undoubtably know what solutions are best for them, yet their voices and ideas are rarely included in policy discussions at national levels.
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Resilience against all odds: socio-economic integration of IDPs in Burkina Faso
Of the almost 2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burkina Faso, most have been settled in reception sites but others have chosen to integrate into host communities. This article explores the determining factors that have led to their successful integration.
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Integrating Afro-descendant and indigenous internally displaced women in Colombia through their own cultural practices
Supporting Afro-descendant and indigenous internally displaced women to develop initiatives based on their particular culture could contribute to their integration and to host
communities.
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Socio-economic integration of Syrian women in Turkey: benefits and challenges of the cooperative model
Women’s cooperatives can help enable the socio-economic integration of Syrian women in
Turkey and address gendered barriers to the labour market. Obstacles remain, however, if
the cooperative model is to be sustainable in the long term.
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Boosting donor engagement to achieve refugees’ socioeconomic inclusion
The international donor community has already moved towards integrating a development
approach into its response to protracted refugee situations. Donors now need to enhance
their engagement with local, national and regional partners to overcome the remaining obstacles to the sustainable socio-economic inclusion of refugees.
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Engaging development actors in supporting the socio-economic integration of forcibly displaced persons in Southern Africa
UNHCR in Southern Africa has been collaborating with development actors to support the
socio-economic integration and durable solutions for displaced people in the region. Various considerations and lessons emerge from this work to date.
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Measuring and facilitating self-reliance
With durable solutions available only to a very small proportion of the global refugee
population, self-reliance programming and the measurement of self-reliance outcomes are
increasingly important topics in re-thinking the quality and sustainability of socio-economic
integration.
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