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FMR 71 – Socio-economic integration: towards solutions for displaced people

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.
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From the Editors

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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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.[1]
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