KNOMAD study on Refugees' Right to Work and Access to Labor Markets

Refugees' Right to Work and Access to Labor Markets

A December 2016 study produced under the KNOMAD's Thematic Working Group on Migration and Development finds a generally restrictive approach to refugees’ right to work across 20 countries that have taken in 70 per cent of the world’s refugees. Most are reluctant to ease these restrictions too.

The majority of refugees work in the informal sector, but under much less satisfactory and more exploitative conditions compared with nationals. Informal labour markets are also constrained in countries with fragile economies which often host large numbers of refugees, says the study.





The research concludes that:
-more national and international coordination is required,
-multiple actors should share in the responsibility to deliver decent work,
-labour market policies as well as training and education should be harnessed to support sustainable livelihoods,
-refugee social capital should be more effectively engaged. 

Based on a sample of 20 case study countries, the aims and objectives of the study are to:

-  Document whether and to what extent refugees have the right to work; 

 - Establish a systematic baseline and analytical review of national laws and policies, and implementation of these rights;

- Assess conditioning variables that facilitate, constrain, or mediate refugees’ right to work and access to labor markets;

- Synthesize the findings and provide an overview of significant current and emerging policy;

- Identify challenges in relation to protecting and promoting refugees’ right to work and access to labor markets

Reaching beyond the right to work per se, the interplay between this right and the wider range of factors mediating labor market access, and the conjuncture of the three metrics of law, policy, and mediating conditions, constitute the distinctive and unique contribution of this study

The study covers the following countries

South Africa 

United States

Venezuela 

Bangladesh

Ecuador

Ethiopia

Germany 

India 

Iran

Lebanon

Pakistan

Sudan 

Turkey

United Kingdom

The country cases studies for Chad, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia will be added at a later stage.