Working in the city: why aid agencies must help urban refugees find work
In a dense neighborhood of greater Beirut, displaced Syrians meet every Tuesday at 7:30pm in a small concrete church tucked between dimly lit apartment buildings. Under the guidance of a Lebanese priest, the small group spends an hour discussing their new lives in a country that is not their own, their struggles in finding work, and the challenges of living among Lebanese in a city unlike any back in Syria. They are young and well-educated, the majority under the age of 40. Some hold bachelor’s degrees in subjects such as civil or chemical engineering. They all came to Beirut for work. Only a few have found jobs in their areas of expertise. A young man with a degree in biomedical engineering has a job as an entry-level assistant at a public relations firm. He, like the rest of the group, spends most of his income on rent and utilities. He feels as though he is paid unfairly, a sentiment that everyone in the room echoes.
They come to groups like this to feel supported in a country that initially welcomed refugees but is experiencing the strain of hosting them for over six years. They share their struggles, are quick to laugh at each other’s jokes, and commiserate their shared status at the lower rungs of the Beirut economy.
21 million refugees worldwide currently face an average of 25 years of displacement before returning home. The need for long-term solutions that allow these refugees to build their livelihoods and secure what they need to survive and lead dignified lives is greater than ever. Refugees no longer exclusively live in tented camps isolated from other populations. Today, some 60 percent of the world’s refugees live in urban contexts, most of them in the cities of conflict-affected or low-income countries such as Lebanon.
While assisting refugees in cities has its challenges, there are opportunities as well. As the IRC’s CEO, David Miliband, recently said in an article for The Guardian,
“cities are, for the most part, centers of economic growth and opportunity, where entrepreneurship and innovation are rewarded. They are also already very mixed and often socially tolerant places where, with the right support and enabling legislation, refugees can find work, educate their children, and make a productive contribution to the local economy and society, in the years before they can return home.”
Refugees and displaced people move to cities, in part, hoping that the prevalence and diversity of job opportunities means they’ll find long-term and respectable work. Like the Syrian refugees I met in Beirut, very few do. Instead, they face incredible difficulty finding a job, let alone one that suits their skill set and professional experience. This is due both to the legal barriers that often restrict the right to work and the social barriers of tensions between refugee and host country populations. For example, social tension in Beirut — such as the local perception that Syrians are taking Lebanese jobs — often leads to the discrimination and exploitation of Syrians in the workforce.
As more and more refugees move into cities, aid agencies need to get better at helping these populations find and hold onto financial resources to survive. This means prioritizing livelihoods programs and better understanding the complexities of delivering them. A recent report by the IRC, which studies the IRC’s cash relief and livelihoods programs in Lebanese and Jordanian cities argues that, given the myriad of legal and social barriers refugees face, aid agencies need to deliver programs that complement each other, work within markets and with local stakeholders to deliver programs that not only help refugees find work, but also address social tensions and fill gaps in the local economy.
Cities present unique opportunities, such as jobs for high-skill labor, and unique challenges, such as the increased cost of living. Complex urban environments require a diverse range of complementary approaches to successfully deliver livelihoods programs to refugees. For example, connecting job-seeking refugees to vacancies may land them work, but it doesn’t ensure that their legal rights are protected.
To address issues like this, the IRC takes a “bundled services approach” to livelihoods programming. Through venues such as the IRC’s Livelihoods Center in greater Beirut, the IRC offers refugees and local Lebanese community members alike a range of complementary choices to find them safe, fair work. The Center offers job training, job placement, entrepreneurship support and grants, and legal counseling (among other options) all under one roof, and allows clients to choose the programs that best suit their skill set and experience, giving them the opportunity to earn their own living.
Najeeb (name changed) has been in Mount Lebanon — 20 kilometers outside of Beirut — for three years. When he first arrived, he tried to replicate the clothing business he had in Damascus.
“Starting a business as a refugee is very difficult,” he states, “the production costs are very high and it’s hard to get the credit that any business needs.” Thanks in part to a grant from the IRC, he was able to grow his business and hire other Syrians. “The IRC grant allowed me to buy materials that have greatly improved the efficiency and the output of the business. I’ve been able to buy new sewing machines and more staff. It’s been important to try and hire Syrians to try and help them make a living.”
The IRC is also addressing broader barriers to job creation and refugee employment in the region. Our Million Jobs Challenge will propose concrete solutions to inclusive economic growth, focusing first on Jordan where 80% of the refugee population lives outside of camps. Using rigorous research and human-centered design, the project aims to develop ambitious new mechanisms that could lead to rapid, large-scale new employment opportunities and provide greater opportunity for displaced people and vulnerable members of host communities. These findings will be presented at the UN General Assembly in September and will focus not only on what the IRC can do, but what governments, donors, and policymakers who play lead roles in investing and implementing solutions can do to further policy reform and provide employment solutions for refugees.
The humanitarian sector, including the UN, NGOs, governments, and private sector stakeholders, must come together to improve livelihoods for those affected by mass displacement.
The discourse around livelihoods is at a dangerous standstill. Within the Syria region especially, commitments made by regional governments and donors must be met more quickly and efficiently, as the crisis continues and worsens.
To continue and expand our livelihoods work in cities around the world, we need global recognition from donors and governments that livelihoods programming is essential to the recovery and development of not just refugee populations, but also to the communities and economies that host them. By providing refugees and host populations alike with options that suit their needs and make meaningful contributions to the local economy, as well as overcome barriers to job creation and refugee employment, aid agencies can better support sustainable livelihoods for the nearly 300,000 refugees living in Beirut and the tens of millions of refugees residing in towns and cities across the globe.
When I mentioned the Beirut Livelihoods Center to the church group, the tone of their conversation changed. They began firing off questions: “Who is allowed to participate? Can they help me find work that suits my skill set? Can they help me become more competitive in the workforce? Can they help me get a fair wage?” I happily answered: everyone, yes, yes, and yes. These refugees had different skill sets, different professional experiences, and were facing different legal or social battles. And yet, because of the IRC’s bundled approach to livelihoods, I was able to offer them one place that could help them with their various needs and get them one step further to self-reliance.
Now the challenge is getting the international community to achieve this on a broader scale by collaboratively developing longer-term, concrete solutions both in policy and practice.
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities.
