Socio-economic and environmental impacts of Syrian Refugees in Jordan: A Jordanians’ perspective

Abstract

Jordan has received more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees, including 656,213 registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since the beginning of Syrian crisis in 2011. Jordanians are acutely feeling significant impacts of the refugees on their daily lives and refugees' pressure on services, natural resources and the labor market, especially in host communities where the impact is the highest. This study aims to analyze economic, social and environmental impacts of Syrian refugees in Jordan from Jordanians' point of view. It also aims to identify the suggestions of Jordanians to alleviate the impacts of Syrians and adapt with the refugees issue in Jordan. This study relies primarily on the available data of Syrian refugees taken from the relevant corporations in Jordan such as Department of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC), and UNHCR. In addition, a questionnaire was designed and distributed online to a representative sample of Jordanians (1080 respondents) to achieve the study’s objectives. The results revealed that pressure on labor market, services, and infrastructure as well as increasing housing rents were the main economic impacts of Syrian refugees especially in the neighboring governorates of Syria in Jordan. The social impacts were represented by increasing crime rates and drugs. Refugees also have impacts and pressure on clean water, energy and environment. However, the respondents reported some positive impacts of refugees including providing market with highly-skilled and low-waged labors that makes the Jordanian market more competitive. The study concluded with some suggested recommendations that may alleviate the negative impacts of refugees on Jordan and adapt with the crisis.