Press release: Host communities can benefit from refugee influx
Nr. 258/2015 - 05.11.2015
Study by Göttingen University proves positive effects relating to the social integration of refugees
(pug) Perpetual civil wars and crises have been generating increasing numbers of refugees. Almost 90 percent of those fleeing worldwide seek shelter in developing countries. Moreover, many refugees remain in their host countries for very long periods of time given that the adverse situations in their homelands take years to decades before improvement makes any return possible. This particularly applies to Uganda, a country in East Africa. That was why researchers from the University of Göttingen's Faculty of Economic Sciences used Uganda as a concrete example to analyse the impact of refugee policy on local populations. Their finding was that people living in villages near refugee settlements had improved access to the primary schools run by international humanitarian organisations. In addition, a greater number of consumers translates into larger markets, thereby raising the consumption of goods in those regions, too. These results were published in the multi-disciplinary international journal World Development.
Uganda shares its borders with Ruanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan – a region that has been afflicted by repeated humanitarian crises since the 1990s. During this period, Uganda was continually one of the most important host countries in the world. The country subscribes to a globally unique refugee policy: The approach of local social and economic integration. “This means that, instead of housing refugees in camp sites, they are allotted settlements with a plot of land and given a kind of starter kit with seeds, tools and the other useful items. They are allowed to move freely and work. That said, they receive support from the government and the United Nations Refugee Agency in these settlements only,” explains Dr. Merle Kreibaum, research fellow for the Department of Development Economics at Göttingen University and study leader. Not only do refugees and Ugandans attend the same schools, but are also treated at the same hospital wards. This strategy breaks down parallel structures in the provision of public services.
“Nevertheless,” Dr. Kreibaum qualifies her statement, “such an increased focus on refugees also has disadvantage effects on local populations dependent on transfers from the government. The negative perceptions about one’s own economic situation in regions with comparatively large refugee populations also contradict the objectively measured improvements. These two limitations show that there is still need for reform, even to the progressively minded Ugandan approach.”
Dr. Kreibaum also draws conclusions from her work for politicians in her own country: “The economic context in Germany cannot be compared with that of Uganda; different skill sets and qualifications are required for integration into the German labour market. That said, these results may also encourage German politicians to lose their reservations about refugees by offering them better opportunities to provide for themselves and become useful for the German economy as well.”
Original publication: Merle Kreibaum. Their Suffering, Our Burden? How Congolese Refugees Affect the Ugandan Population. World Development. Doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.10.019. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15002417
Dr. Merle Kreibaum
Georg-August-University Göttingen
Faculty of Economic Sciences
Chair in Development Economics
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
E-mail: merle.kreibaum@wiwi.uni-goettingen.de
Website: www.uni-goettingen.de/de/merle-kreibaum/409643.html