Forced migrants are believed to have both negative and positive effects on both the forced migrants and the host community. These impacts can be economic, social, political, demographical and environmental which affect the migrants and their hosts in short and long term, especially if the staying of the forced migrants have protracted. When they arrive in the host place, they immediately start to compete for scarce resources such as water, food, housing, and health services. Their existence in the society increases the demands for public services such as education and health services, as well as transportation, and water supply. Natural resources also may be affected by their existence in some cases. Solving the forced migrants crisis does not mean that their negative impacts will be solved too, however, these impacts may be felt even a long after solving the migrants problem (UNHCR, 1997). The movement of forced migrants and their existence in new country has a serious effects on the migrants themselves. Especially, because in many cases they have to leave their homes without an ability to take anything with them. In addition, they lose their jobs and in some cases they also lose their properties because of destruction of confiscation. Moreover, their skills maybe are not useful in the new community. Furthermore, the social and cultural differences constitute significant barriers that encountering them. However, the movement can carry positive impacts on the forced migrants. Many factors are intervening to determine the nature of the impacts whether positive or negative such as the economic policies of the host country, the shape of the relation between forced migrants and locals, and the interaction between rural and urban within the host community ( world bank, 2010 ). …show more content…
Moreover, Chambers (1986) divided the affected categories by refugees into losers and winners and determined them as summarized by Whitaker (1999,2) “refugees are assumed to have a different impact on diverse classes, genders, sectors and regions within the host country, but little empirical evidence has been done on this issue”. In this part some economic and social effects will be mentioned and examples from different studies in different places, periods, issues, and done by different methods will be provided to give a general idea about the potential effects and to show the role of the time , geographic area, economic level, and social characteristics in determining the extent and nature of these effects. Economic impacts Forced migrants may have significant economic impacts on the host community which can be both burdens and benefits for the locals. The presence of forced migrants leads to increase the competition with locals for resources, infrastructures, and public services such as housing, employment, education, medical facilities, and energy. In addition, raising the prices in the market may occur due to the increased demands, furthermore, their needs for an accommodation can raise the rents and houses’ prices. These effects may be in favor of the local traders and landlords, however, they affect poor people and those on fixed income negatively UNHCR (1997). In addition, the presence of forced migrants can participate …show more content…
On the other hand, the presence of forced migrants may carry economic benefits for the locals. Their presence can lead to developing the region and locals may benefit from the aid and assistance projects in the region which may address more employment opportunities for them. In addition, the assistances may include equipment supply, capacity building, and related training components UNHCR (1997). Moreover, the forced migrants may constitute a significant source of skilled and educated people that can benefit the locals. For instance, the business contribution of well-educated Iraqi refugees in Amman, Jordan (Crisp et al, 2009).
The study of the economic effects of Syrian refugees in Turkey which have been conducted by Öztürkler and Göksel, 2015, and examined their effects on the Turkish cities that have common borders with Syria shows that the existence of refugees in large numbers in these cities has led to many negative impacts on the native locals such as it caused high rates of job loss, increasing the possibility of losing job, increasing the unemployment rate in the informal sector, rising prices of food, and high percentage rise in rent