Impact of refugees’ participation in the labour market on decent work and social cohesion: examples and evidence from two ILO programmes in Jordan

Jordan has played a key role in the international response to the Syrian refugee crisis, despite the pressure this has placed on the country’s limited resources. Jordan hosts some 1.3 million Syrian refugees, of whom 660,000 are registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), making it the second largest per capita refugee-hosting country in the world in 2021. The large majority of Syrian refugees (79.5%) reside in urban areas with host communities. The country’s commitment to helping mitigate the crisis was solidified by the introduction of the 2016 Jordan Compact Agreement, intended to promote inclusive growth by increasing the economic opportunities available to both Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan. The Compact facilitated the access of Syrian refugees to the labour market by reducing barriers to the legal employment of refugees in the kingdom – the first such agreement in the Arab States region to do so.

This article outlines how the International Labour Organization (ILO) has supported Syrian refugees and host communities to access decent employment Decent work refers to work that is ‘productive and delivers a fair income, [ensures] security in the workplace and social protection for all, [provides] better prospects for personal development and social integration, [upholds] the freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and [guarantees] equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men’. and how this has contributed to strengthening social cohesion between the two.

Syrian refugees’ access to decent employment in Jordan: before and after the 2016 Compact

Up until the beginning of 2016, access to the labour market for non-Jordanians, including refugees, was highly restricted. According to the Jordanian labour law at the time, migrant workers could only obtain jobs if they had competence that was not available in Jordan or in occupations where the demand for labour was higher than the existing supply in the country. To be able to obtain such jobs, work permits had to be applied for by employers and the employees were tied to a single employer for the whole validity period of the permit. In addition, the process of obtaining work permits was relatively expensive as well as bureaucratic, for both the employer and the employee. Thus, prior to 2016, only about 3,000 work permits were issued annually to Syrians, and in practice, all Syrians working in Jordan prior to that time were engaged in informal employment generally associated with low wages, long working days, and poor working conditions.

In 2016, the government of Jordan, in partnership with the international community, committed to improving the living conditions, prospects and resilience of both Syrian refugees and Jordanian host communities. Through these efforts, the Jordan Compact was born. The Compact is a commitment from the international community not only to support Jordan in hosting refugees, but also to support Jordanian citizens and the economy as a whole. As part of the Compact, the Jordanian government began facilitating Syrian labour-force participation in a formal and regularised manner by relaxing some of the requirements for the issuance of work permits, including:

• Agricultural cooperatives and the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions were given authority to issue non-employer specific (flexible) work permits in various sectors, including agriculture and construction. This meant that Syrian workers in those sectors were no longer tied to a single employer but free to work for any companies, and to travel freely in Jordan in search of job opportunities.
• Fees associated with the issuance of work permits for refugees have been waived since April 2016, as an explicit condition of the World Bank loan given to Jordan as part of the Compact.
• Exemptions from deportation or relocation of Syrians have been put in place considering the conflict in Syria.
• Concessional trade and finance were made available to Jordan by the international community, agreed on the condition that they formalise employment for 200,000 Syrian refugees.

While there remain many challenges to ensuring access to decent work opportunities in various sectors employing Syrian workers, work permits have provided a legal pathway for many to access and enjoy their rights. Since the signing of the Jordan Compact, more than 350,000 work permits have been issued to Syrian refugees in Jordan.

State of social cohesion between Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan

While there is limited consensus about what is meant by the concept of social cohesion, what is less contested is that forced displacement affects social relations and can lead to social tensions. Amongst the various channels through which displacement can affect social cohesion, the perceived impact on the labour market and the ability of hosts to sustain their livelihoods is central. The influx of large numbers of displaced people can be perceived as increasing competition for jobs and placing a downward pressure on wages and working conditions. As this has important implications for the ability of hosts to meet their basic needs, this perception can result in resentment towards displaced populations and contribute to social tensions. Indeed, various research projects See for example, REACH (2014), Understanding social cohesion and resilience in Jordanian host communities, available here. in Jordan identified the presence of tensions between host communities and Syrian refugees, largely driven by the belief that the refugee crisis deteriorated living conditions for Jordanians.

ILO programming in Jordan

In Jordan, the ILO contributes to the Jordan Response Plan and the Jordan Compact wherein its work focuses on three core priorities: promoting decent work through strengthened labour market governance; enhancing economic growth through private-sector development; and promoting job creation and developing people’s skills. Under the first priority, the ILO has advocated for Syrian refugees’ right to work and rights at work, and supported government in the issuance of work permits to refugees, whilst strengthening decent work conditions in factories and in the agricultural sector and providing support to address instances of child labour. Under the second priority, the ILO has supported the Ministry of Labour to establish employment service centres which cater to both Syrian refugees and Jordanian nationals, providing them with support to find decent employment, and referring them to skills training opportunities. This is in addition to enterprise support for the participants in the previous three programmes, with a particular focus on the agriculture and post-harvest logistics sectors. Finally, under the third priority, the ILO implements various Employment Intensive Investment Programmes (EIIPs) that aim at direct job creation and improving the availability and quality of infrastructure. The ILO response and interventions are informed by several assessments and evaluations capturing the situation and voices of displaced populations.

Throughout the ILO’s programming in the refugee-hosting countries – whether in Jordan or elsewhere – the ILO places a strong emphasis on ensuring that interventions do not exacerbate existing social tensions, but instead contribute to fostering social cohesion between displaced populations and host communities, and supporting the resilience of displaced populations, including through the promotion of integration where possible.

In Jordan, two specific interventions are presented that have aimed to achieve these twin objectives. Firstly, the ILO – together with development and humanitarian partners – has provided support to the government of Jordan in the issuance of work permits for refugees, in support of the government’s commitment under the 2016 Compact to support refugee populations to access decent employment and contribute to the Jordanian economy. The ILO supported the deployment of mobile work permit stations to enable Syrian refugees to more easily renew their documentation and contribute to the establishment of employment centres in and around refugee camps to make employment services more easily accessible to refugees.

Secondly, the ILO has implemented EIIPs that aim at direct job creation while also contributing to improving the quality and availability of infrastructure as well as the employability of participants through the provision of skills training. From the outset, the programme is designed to promote social cohesion, by bringing together host communities and Syrian refugees, providing workers from the two communities with the opportunity to engage more closely and consistently. The impact of the programme on social cohesion has been closely monitored between phases, with indicators relating to the perception of residents in target governorates on the level of tensions between host communities and refugees, and on the willingness of participants to interact with other population groups, among others.

Evidence of impacts

Access to work permits

A recent study produced by ILO and Fafo was designed to explore and advance the evidence base on the impact of work permit regulations on decent work outcomes for Syrian refugees in Jordan by analysing several data sets gathered by ILO and Fafo since 2014. The findings from the analyses show clear positive impacts of the work permit scheme in improving decent work for Syrian refugee workers in Jordan. Based on an analysis of a wide selection of decent work indicators, most of these were found to show that Syrians holding a valid work permit held better quality jobs than their counterparts without valid work permits. The analyses also showed that in many areas of decent work, Syrian workers had come closer to the standards of the Jordanian workers over time, indicating a steady assimilation of Syrians into the Jordanian labour market, partly caused by the introduction of the work permit scheme. However, decent work is still considerably more prevalent among Jordanians compared to Syrians in most areas, indicating that there is still much room for improvement.

Beyond the impacts on decent working conditions, the studies also identified largely positive outcomes of the work permits on integration and social cohesion. Firstly, the study found that holding work permits gave Syrian refugees a sense of safety, with some 70% of interviewed refugees with work permits highlighting that the permit made them feel safe in the streets, which contributes to their wellbeing in general. Secondly, the scheme also contributed to Syrian refugees’ better integration into Jordanian society and the status of Syrian refugees in the labour market, with greater numbers of Jordanians perceiving Syrian refugee workers to be reliable and hardworking following the implementation of the scheme. And the same positive trend was seen in terms of perceptions of the influence of Syrian refugees’ presence on the wage levels in the market: 90% of Jordanians believed that Syrians were pushing down wage levels in 2014 compared to only 65% with the same belief in 2020. The level of trust between Jordanians and Syrian refugees has also increased significantly between 2014 and 2018, with 48% of Jordanians expressing trust in Syrian refugees in 2018 compared to 12% in 2014. These datasets reflect the greater level of social cohesion created between host communities and Syrian refugees in Jordan. 

Employment Intensive Investment Programme

Between 2016 and 2022, the EIIP has generated 22,232 employment opportunities, with almost equal participation among host communities (48.2%) and Syrian refugees (51.8%). Evidence of the programme’s impact on social cohesion has illustrated positive trends. Indeed, between the third and fourth phase of the programme implementation – during which the project expanded its geographical coverage, and included wider participation of (skilled) refugees and women – worker surveys were conducted to understand its contribution to social cohesion based on an index compiling answers in relation to trust, respect, cooperation and comfort between host communities and Syrian refugees. Responses on the contribution of the programme to social cohesion, while strong in the third phase, were higher in the fourth. Similarly, while 88.8% of surveyed participants identified that the programme had contributed to reducing tensions between the communities in the third phase, 95.8% agreed in the fourth. For example, evidence from qualitative data collection suggested that the EIIP had enabled participants to forge new relationships and friendships with other nationalities that extended outside of the work environment.

Conclusion

Participation of refugees in the labour market in fragile contexts can enhance the local economy and social cohesion. Integration in the labour market should be a longer-term strategic approach, rather than applying it to discrete activities and project interventions, to ensure the holistic contribution to local economy and social cohesion outcomes.

It is important to ensure that the situation analysis and the formulation and design of activities considers differences in the situation, needs, and voices of different target groups within refugees and host communities including women, youth, and people with disabilities. Addressing these differences with a rights-based approach will contribute positively to social justice, contact, and thus social cohesion. This allows for the identification of potential problems and solutions. For example, it is important to identify what kinds of infrastructure and skills-training programmes are most likely to be useful to the local communities and promote coexistence among and between them, as well as understand the fault lines that might trigger tensions during project implementation. Such measures will not only advance refugees’ integration and empowerment but – by reducing grievances linked to unequal access to resources and opportunities and enhancing contact – will also contribute positively to reducing conflicts and enable refugees to act as agents of peace. Throughout the planning, design and implementation of its interventions, the ILO is systematically informed by the findings of the different evaluations and assessments conducted throughout the different phases that highlight the situation, needs and aspirations of the different target groups.

Maha Kattaa is the ILO Iraq Country Coordinator and Senior Resilience and Crisis Response Specialist for the ILO Arab States region.  

Nathalie Both is a Social Protection and Resilience Technical Officer in the ILO Iraq Country Office.