Migration & Mobility

Economic Impact of Syrian Refugees in Neighboring Countries: The Cases of Turkey and Lebanon

30 May 2016. From 19:00 | Workshop | IEMed, Barcelona

After the Syrian spring in 2011, a wave of refugees escaped the war in 2015. Currently, they make up 1 of 4 people in Lebanon, many of them welcomed by relatives and acquaintances. For its part, Turkey has more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees on its territory, most of whom are not in refugee camps. The Turkish government estimates that it has spent more than 7 billion euros to house these refugees since the beginning of the crisis. The economic implications of these refugees for Lebanon and Turkey are very important; unfortunately, there is nothing to suggest that circumstances may improve in the medium term. Integrating the productive and economic capacity of these refugees into the economies of the host countries can be beneficial to all. And to create the political and economic mechanisms that allow it depends on the political will of the authorities of these states.

In the framework of the cycle “The Mediterranean of refugees”, the seminar discusses how to create the political and economic mechanisms that allow the economic integration of refugees and whether there is sufficient political will.