Student Spotlight: Kelberer Pens Article
Vicky Kelberer, MA Candidate at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent article examining the refugee work permit program in Jordan for urban refugees.
Kelberer’s article, entitled “Putting Refugee Work Permits to Work,” was published in the Spring 2016 issue of the Middle East Report.
From the text of the article:
There has now been a major shift in the attitude of Jordan, one of the largest host countries of Syrian refugees. In their desperation to stem the northward flow of migrants, European Union countries made work permits for Syrians a condition of Jordan’s aid package at a London donors’ conference in February. Acceding to these requirements in return for favorable loan terms from the International Monetary Fund, Jordan shocked observers by issuing work permits for Syrian refugees in March, a move that had previously been considered “non-negotiable.”
Jordan hosts more than 640,000 registered Syrian refugees, and the government estimates that up to 1.3 million Syrians actually live in the country, between unregistered refugees and Syrians who were residents before the civil war. The vast
majority—including 85 percent of those registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)—live outside camps, primarily in cities, alongside poor Jordanians and migrant workers. The new work permit program is intended to wean refugees off what little aid exists; throughout the five-year Syrian refugee crisis, the UNHCR’s appeal has consistently been less than halfway funded. The program is also intended to enable Jordan to leverage aid and investment to stabilize a struggling economy and bolster domestic markets.The influx of Syrians has helped and hurt the Jordanian economy, which had several pre-existing problems, such as high public debt as a percentage of GDP, dependency on foreign aid, and a high exchange rate of the Jordanian dinar. Many Syrian refugees brought significant capital with them at the beginning of the crisis, but much of that is exhausted, and those who own businesses face backlash for perceived crowding-out of Jordanian competitors. The Jordanian economy is projected to grow by 2.7 percent in 2016, below earlier projections of 3.5 percent and well below the 5 percent the government says is necessary to create sufficient jobs to match population growth and reduce unemployment.
Kelberer completed research for the article on a recent trip to Jordan during which she spent time at the Zaatari refugee camp and met with Jordanian officials from the Ministry of Education. The trip was sponsored by the Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies.