blog surf
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 17
The emergence of new conflicts, together with the increasing duration of existing displacement crises, implies that forced displacement is set to increase.
When it does, the need for employment opportunities for forcibly displaced people will do so proportionally. The World Bank estimates that, by 2030, the majority of the world's extreme poor, which includes a large proportion of displaced people, will live in fragile and conflict affected states - so job creation in fragile states has the significant potential to address poverty.
Large scale displacement produces an expansionary effect - there are more people and money in the same geographical area, according to Paolo Verme, a lead economist with the World Bank. Evidence from a research program that he leads found that, in 70 to 80 percent of the results from different countries and contexts, forced displacement has either a positive or non-significant effect on employment or wages of host communities.
In more than 50 percent of cases, there are positive wellbeing results for host community households, indicating that they benefit from the presence of the forcibly displaced.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 18, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
