Greater Prosperity for Refugees and Host Communities: The Benefits of Granting Refugees Formal Labor Market Access

Our previous research, Are Refugees Located Near Job Opportunities? reveals that there are as many as 2.1 million working-age refugees in major urban areas in developing countries. However, in most developing countries, refugees lack the right to work and own a business, and face a variety of other barriers to employment such as limited freedom of movement. CGD’s Michael Clemens, Cindy Huang, and Jimmy Graham have produced a new working paper and policy brief—The economic and fiscal effects of granting refugees formal labor market access—that finds granting refugees formal labor market access has the potential to create substantial benefits for refugees and their hosts. These include greater productivity, increased tax revenues and incomes for hosts, and greater economic security and stability for refugees. Join us for a discussion of the central findings of the paper and recommended policies that can facilitate these benefits and mitigate potential costs.