2020 Research Conference on Forced Displacement
UN City, Copenhagen
UN Photo / Olivier Chasso
Globally, there are an estimated 70.8 million people who have fled their homes either as refugees (25.9 million), internally displaced persons (41.3 million), or asylum seekers as a result of conflict and persecution. The least developed countries host one-third of the global refugee population, while 16 percent of the total refugees live in countries in developed regions. (UNHCR Global Trends, 2018)
Given the scale and the complexity of the crises, the World Bank Group (WBG) and UNHCR have significantly stepped up their joint initiatives on forced displacement, through analytical work; collaboration with governments on microdata collection; and joint missions to inform WBG programming on refugee situations, particularly through IDA18 and the Global Concessional Financing Facility. To further synergize efforts, both organizations, with support from the Danish government, inaugurated the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement (JDC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 10, 2019.
Part of the JDC mandate is to stimulate research and data around forcibly displaced and enhance the ability of stakeholders to make timely and evidence-based policy decisions. To support its efforts, the JDC is partnering with the Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) and Middle East Initiative (MEI) at Harvard University, Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University and World Bank’s Development Economics Research Group, to host a Research Conference on Forced Displacement on January 16-18, 2020 at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The conference will focus attention on emerging scholarship and establish links between researchers and data providers to promote coordinated and innovative efforts on this issue. It will present perspectives from practitioners, beneficiaries, and academics on multiple topics including effects on forcibly displaced and host communities; impact on children; and studies based on evidence from mobile data. Select papers from the conference will be featured in the special issue on Forced Displacement of the Journal of Development Economics.
This article originally appeared on www.worldbank.org.
Program
PRE-CONFERENCE SESSION, JANUARY 16
Book Launch and Lunch (Room 4.8.26)
Introduction and moderation by Carolina Sanchez, Senior Director of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank
12:45 Light lunch served
13:00 Book Launch: Data Collection in Fragile States Innovations from Africa and Beyond
Johannes G. Hoogeveen and Utz Pape
13:30 Book Launch: Using Micro-Data to Inform Durable Solutions for IDPs
Utz Pape
Setting the Stage (Lounge 1)
14:30 World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement; Vision and Work Program
Björn Gillsäter, Head, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
Volker Schimmel, Deputy Head, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
14:45 Forced Displacement, a World Bank Perspective
Comments by Xavier Devictor, Manager, Fragility, Conflict and Violence, World Bank
15:00 Introducing the Developing World Refugee and Asylum Policy Dataset
Christopher W. Blair, Guy Grossman, and Jeremy Weinstein.
With comments by Grainne O’Hara, Director of the Division of International Protection, UNHCR
15:30 A review of literature as presented in: The Impact of Forced Displacement on Host Communities: A Review of the Empirical Literature in Economics, Paolo Verme and Kristen Schuettler
Introduction by Jedediah Fix, DRS, UNHCR
Conversation with a Thought Leader (Lounge 1)
16:00 Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner, UNHCR
Introduction and interview by Caroline Sergeant, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
Poster Session (Lounge 1)
16:45 Poster Session with aspiring researchers in the field of forced displacement
Introduction by Ewen Macleod, Director, DRS, UNHCR
• The Impacts of Refugee Repatriation on Receiving Communities, Carlos Vargas-Silva and Isabel Ruiz
• Refugee Camps and Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Colette Salemi
• Psychosocial Dimensions of Displacement: Prevalence of Mental Health Outcomes and Related Stressors Among IDPs in Iraq, Nadia Siddiqui, Joshua Stacey and Roger Guiu
• Psychological Trauma, Socioemotional Skills, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia, Andrés Moya, Suzanne Duryea and Carolina González-Velosa
• Female Employment and Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Syrian Refugee Inflows to Turkey, Bilge Erten and Pinar Keskin
• A Quasi-experimental Analysis of the Effect of Armed Conflict on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV): Evidence from the Boko Haram (BH) Insurgency in Nigeria, Uche Eseosa Ekhator-Mobayode, Lucia C. Hanmer, Eliana Carolina Rubiano Matulevich and Diana Jimena Arango
• The Impact of Remittances on the Development of Ethiopia, Dawit Haileyesus Denegetu
• Gender-based Situational Analysis of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study in Kutupalong Camp and New Arrivals, Tarak Aziz
• Irregular Migration and the Unintended Consequences of Search and Rescue Operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Claudio Deiana, Vikram Maheshri, Giovanni Mastrobuoni
CONFERENCE DAY 1, JANUARY 17
Policy Session (Auditorium 3)
9:00 Welcome and introduction by Björn Gillsäter, Head, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
9:05 Setting the Stage: A Host Country Perspective
Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey, Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, UNHCR
9:15 Why We Need Better Data and Research on Forced Displacement
Ola Rosling, Founder of the fact tank Gapminder and co-author of the book Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, 2018
09:40 Practitioners’ Perspectives
Moderated by Caroline Sergeant, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
Carolina Sanchez-Paramo, Senior Director of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank
Thomas Thomsen, Chief Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Sheree Bennett, Research and Evidence, Advisor, International Rescue CommitteeAnna Schmidt, Policy Advisor, Migration & Forced Displacement, European Commission
Xavier Devictor, Manager of Fragility, Conflict and Violence, World Bank
10:30 Coffee Break (Lounge 1)
Academic Session (Auditorium 3)
11:00 Movement (Chair: Philip Verwimp)
• When Do Refugees Return Home? Evidence from Syrian Displacement in Mashreq, Lori Beaman, Harun
Onder, and Stefanie Onder
• More is Better: Evaluating the Impact of a Variation in Cash Assistance on the Reintegration Outcomes of Returning Afghan Refugees, Hisham Esper, Nandini Krishnan, and Christina Wieser
• The Globalization of Refugee Flows, Xavier Devictor, Quy-Toan Do, and Andrei Levchenko
13:15 Lunch (Lounge 1)
13:30 Lunch Session: Microdata Libraries on Forcibly Displaced
Kimberly Roberson, Chief of Section, UNHCR
Olivier Dupriez, Lead Statistician, DEC, World Bank
Moderated by Jeffery Tanner, Senior Economist, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
14:15 Effects on Forcibly Displaced (Chair: Simone Bertoli)
• Allowing Forced Migrants to Work: Impacts of Work Permits on Labor Markets and Crime, Dany Bahar, Ana Marıa Ibanez, and Sandra V. Rozo
• Creating Coexistence: Intergroup Contact and Soccer in Post-ISIS Iraq, Salma Mousa
• Measuring the Impact of Multipurpose Cash Assistance in Humanitarian Settings: The Case of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, Jad Chaaban, Nisreen Salti, Hala Ghattas, Wael Moussa, Alexandra Irani, Zeina Jamaluddine, Rima Al Mokdad
16:30 Flash Session for Graduate Students (Chair: Arthur Alik Lagrange, Joint Data Center)
• Refugee Inflow, Surplus Farm Labor, and Crop Marketization in Rural Africa, Shunsuke Tsuda
• The Syrian Refugee Life Study (S-RLS) Samuel Leone, Edward Miguel, Sandra V. Rozo, and Emma Smith
• Refugees and Native Flight: Evidence from Lebanon, Layane Alhorr
• The Economic and Social Integration of Refugees: Evidence from Italy, Francesca Miserocchi, Awa Ambra Seck
18:00 Wrap-up
Quy-Toan Do, Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
Canal Cruise and Reception
18:30 Departure on boat from Århusgadekvarteret, Murmanskgade (map will be provided)
19:00 Reception at the Black Diamond- Royal Library
CONFERENCE DAY 2, JANUARY 18
Academic Session (Auditorium 3)
8:15 Effects on Hosts (Chair: Mushfiq Mobarak)
• Blessing or Burden? The Impact of Refugees on Businesses and the Informal Economy, Sandra Rozo, Onur Altindag and Ozan Bakis
• The Effect of Refugees on Native Adolescents' Test Scores: Quasi-experimental Evidence from PISA, Semih Tumen
• Mass Refugee Inflow and Long-run Prosperity: Lessons from the Greek Population Resettlement, Elie Murard and Seyhun Orcan Sakalli
10:30 Coffee Break (Lounge 1)
Academic Session (continued )
10:45 Parallel Sessions
I: Effects on Children and Women; Chair: Anna Schrimpf (Auditorium 3)
• Mitigating the Social Exclusion of Refugee Children: An Educational Intervention on Perspective Taking, Sule Alan, Ceren Baysan, Mert Gumren, and Elif Kubilay.
• Using Children’s Drawings to Measure Psychological Impacts of Exposure to Violence: The Case of Rohingya and Syrian Refugees, Sarah Baird, Jennifer Muz, Rafael Panlilo, Bruce Wydick.
• Marriage Outcomes of Displaced Women, Prashant Bharadwaj, Frances Lu, and Sameem Siddiqui
II: Measurement; Chair: Paolo Verme (Lounge 1)
• Refugee Mobility: Evidence from Phone Data in Turkey, Michel Beine, Luisito Bertinell, Rana Comertpay, Anastasia Litina, Jean-Francois Maystad, and Benteng Zou
• Segregation of Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Evidence from Mobile Phone Data, Simone Bertoli, Caglar Ozden, and Michael Packard
• Targeting Humanitarian Aid Using Administrative Data: Model Design and Validation, Onur Altindag, Stephen D. O’Connell, Aytug Sasmaz, Zeynep Balcioglu, Matilda Jerneck, Aimee Kunze Foong, and Paola Cadoni
13:00 Lunch (Lounge 1)
Academic Session (Auditorium 3)
14:00 Brown/Harvard Special Session: Experience from History and High-Income Areas (Chair: Reema Hanna)
• Previous Exposure to Immigration and Attitudes toward Refugees, Rania Gihleb, Osea Giuntella and Luca Stella
• Migrant Initial Experiences and Posterior Job Search Behavior: Evidence from the UK’s Asylum System, Zovanga L. Kone, Isabel Ruiz and Carlos Vargas-Silva
• Fanning the Flames of Hate: Social Media and Hate Crime, Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz
17:00 Wrap up, Take-aways and Next Steps
Björn Gillsäter, Head, Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement
Andrew Foster, Editor in Chief, Journal of Development Economics
Video
Watch the Sessions
JANUARY 16, 2020
Pre-Conference Session
Setting the Stage and Conversation with a Thought Leader
DAY 1, JANUARY 17, 2020
Academic Sessions (Auditorium 3)
Microdata Libraries on Forcibly Displaced
DAY 2, JANUARY 18, 2020
Academic Sessions and Next Steps (Auditorium 3)
Academic Session (Lounge 1)