Abstract
This paper examines the influence of Congolese refugees on host communities in Rwanda, with a focus on labour market activity and economic welfare. The analysis takes advantage of newly collected survey data from three refugee camps and their surrounding areas to compare individuals and households within communities at various distances from, and therefore exposure to, the refugee population. We find evidence that residing close to a refugee camp makes it more likely that an individual is engaged in wage employment in comparison to farming or livestock production, representing a shift away from subsistence farming activities. In addition, there is evidence that females living nearby a camp have a higher occurrence of self-employment in business both as a primary and secondary activity, highlighting a notable gender-specific dynamic. Likewise, living in close proximity to a camp is associated with greater household asset ownership, benefiting both male- and female-headed households similarly, whereas no relationship is found in regard to ones’ subjective perception of their household’s economic situation. These generally encouraging results illustrate that refugees need not be a burden to their host societies, and their presence results in direct and indirect benefits.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 5 |
| Journal | IZA Journal of Development and Migration |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
Funding
We thank Sonja Fransen, Carlos Vargas-Silva and Eleonora Nillesen for invaluable feedback on earlier versions. Likewise, we received helpful feedback from participants of the “Beyond Crisis: Rethinking Refugee Studies” conference at the University of Oxford, the “Transnational Migration, Citizenship and the Circulation of Rights and Responsibilities” workshop at the European University Institute, the workshop on “Migration and Conflict” at Université Catholique de Louvain, and the 10th AFD-World Bank Conference on Migration and Development. This paper is a result of a project funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but which was independently carried out by researchers from the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance | UNU-MERIT. We are thankful of the UNHCR’s sub-country office in Kigali, as well as the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NISR) for their support during fieldwork. We would also like to thank the anonymous referee and the editor for the useful remarks. Responsible editor: Jackline Wahba This paper is a result of a project funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but which was independently carried out by researchers from the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance | UNU-MERIT.
Keywords
- Assets
- Host communities
- Labour market
- Refugees
- Rwanda
