Abstract
ABSTRACT Many reports document the hardships experienced by refugees, highlighting that women and children are a highly vulnerable group. However, empirical analysis of how gender inequality impacts poverty among refugees is limited. We combine registration data for Syrian refugees in Jordan collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees with data from its Home Visit surveys to analyze income poverty rates among refugee households. We use an approach that captures the disruption to household structures that results from displacement to evaluate the poverty impacts, comparing refugee households with male and female principal applicants (PAs). We find that distinguishing between different types of principal applicant households is important. Half of the female PAs for nonnuclear households live below the poverty line compared to only one-fifth of male PAs for nonnuclear household. PAs who are widows and widowers also face high poverty risks. Households that have formed because of the unpredictable dynamics of forced displacement, such as unaccompanied children and single caregivers, emerge as extremely vulnerable groups. We show that differences in household composition and individual attributes of male and female PAs are not the only factors driving increased poverty risk. Gender-specific barriers which prevent women accessing labor markets are also a factor. Our findings show that gender inequality amplifies the poverty experienced by a significant number of refugees. Our approach can be used to help policy-makers design more effective programs of assistance and find durable solutions for displaced populations.
Highlights
Conflict, persecution, natural disasters, and violence force millions to flee from their homes
Little is known about the reasons for increased rates of child marriage in Jordan, but recent research among Syrian refugees in Lebanon reveals that contributing factors include Syrian parents thinking that the risks of gender‐based violence and harassment are higher in Lebanon than they were in Syria and that some Syrian girls choose to marry as a way to exit unfavorable living conditions (Bartels et al 2017)
Before assistance (Panel A of Table 6), the mean difference in poverty rates between households with a female compared to a male principal applicant was under 1 percentage point (poverty rates were marginally higher among female principal applicant households, so we focus our discussion on the poverty after assistance (Panel B of Table 6)
Summary
Persecution, natural disasters, and violence force millions to flee from their homes. Female‐headed households include women who are widowed, divorced or separated as well as abandoned women and married women with a nonresident (polygynous or migrant) husband and can encompass married women or women living with a male partner who self‐report as household heads (Klasen, Lechtenfeld, and Povel 2015; Ruwanpura and Humphries 2004;) Whether these female‐headed households are poor or not will depend on the broader social context, including the gender norms that determine women’s access to markets (including labor markets) and other institutions and, their kinship‐based claims and other entitlements (Kabeer 1997). Widow‐headed households in post‐genocide rural Rwanda were found to have a higher incidence of poverty than male‐headed households, even after controlling for the distribution of size and composition of these types of households (Schindler 2010)
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