The Impact of Refugee Crises on Host Labor Markets: The Case of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Turkey

Yusuf Emre Akgunduz, Marcel van den Berg and Wolter Hassink ()
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Wolter Hassink: Utrecht University

No 8841, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The civil war in Syria has culminated into major refugee crises in its neighboring countries. By the end of 2013 more than half a million people were seeking shelter in cities and refugee camps in Turkey. We analyze how the Syrian refugee influx in Turkey has affected food and housing prices, employment rates and internal migration patterns in regions of Turkey where refugees are being accommodated. Refugee camps are geographically concentrated near the Syrian border, which enables us to employ the rest of regional Turkey as control group with a difference-in-difference approach to analyze the impact on local economies. Our findings suggest that housing and to a lesser degree food prices increased, but employment rates of natives in various skill groups are largely unaffected. Incumbent natives appear to be staying put considering the limited migration out of the region, but there is a significant decline in internal migration into regions hosting refugees. Nevertheless, the decline in internal in-migration is less than a tenth of the refugee influx, implying that there is little evidence of refugees crowding out natives in local labor markets.

Keywords: refugees; employment; migration; inflation; regional economy; difference-in-difference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2015-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-cwa, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (44)

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