Advancing the Jobs Agenda: Toward Self-Reliance in Refugee Situations

Zara Inga Sarzin

No 11246, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper synthesizes recent evidence on refugee self-reliance in low- and middle-income countries, clarifying definitions, reviewing measurement approaches, and assessing the effectiveness of policies and programs that foster self-reliance. Refugee self-reliance varies across contexts. It is lowest in camps, and higher in urban, non-camp settings that offer better access to jobs and markets. Host country policies that provide refugees with secure legal status, the right to work, and freedom of movement consistently correlate with higher employment and earnings. Programmatic interventions to support economic participation and self-reliance show heterogeneous impacts. Active labor market and entrepreneurship support programs typically yield modest gains in the short term, while “graduation” programs deliver larger improvements in welfare. The paper argues that enabling policies, combined with targeted, context-specific support, and use of national systems can improve refugee self-reliance, lower hosting costs, maximize the impact of financing for refugee situations, and transform fiscal costs into development gains for host countries. More rigorous evidence is needed on long-term impacts, demand-side job creation, and large-scale government-led policy reforms, underscoring the need to integrate empirical evaluation into policy and program design.

Date: 2025-10-29
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