Despite the huge attention that the hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing the European borders is attracting, the overwhelming majority of refugees is still hosted by developing countries.
In fact, all Arab countries combined hosted about 7 million refugees in 2014, about 40 percent of all refugees globally (Figure 1). Currently, Lebanon hosts the highest proportion of refugees (23.2% of the population) closely followed by Jordan (8.7% of the population).
Refugees hosted by Arab Countries
Source: Authors’ calculations based on World Development Indicators 2015 (WDI use data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Statistical Yearbook and data files, complemented by statistics on Palestinian refugees under the mandate of the UNRWA as published on its website. Data from UNHCR are available online at: www.unhcr.org/statistics/populationdatabase.
Note: The Arab world is composed of the 22 member states of the League of Arab States
More investments in fragile states and refugee hosting countries can help preventing future conflict and related migrant inflows
The root causes of conflict vary greatly with each case and are often the consequence of a combination of political, institutional, economic, and social stresses. The literature across academic disciplines points to a broad set of potential factors. These include ethnic tension, religious competition, real or perceived discrimination, poor governance and state capacity, competition for land and natural resources, population pressure and rapid urbanization, as well as economic factors such as poverty, youth unemployment, and food insecurity.
As part of a comprehensive strategy to deal with the “Arab refugee crisis” and more generally reduce the number of refugees globally, scaling up and better targeting the short-term and longer-run economic aid for refugees and fragile countries is crucial. In the short run and where possible, emergency assistance for those trapped in conflict situations remains a humanitarian imperative. Similarly, hosting those who escaped war and providing them with goods and services for basic needs is not only a humanitarian act but a human right established by international law.
For a longer term impact, development policy and assistance should strengthen its focus on fragile states. Such economic collaboration should focus on policies and investments that tackle some of the current root economic causes of conflict, particularly poverty, unemployment, and food and nutrition insecurity. In addition, more emphasis should be given to building resilience to climate change related-shocks such as droughts and food price spikes as potential sources of future conflicts.
