The impact of Syrian refugees on Turkish child labor market

Abstract

During the last decade, nearly 3.7 million Syrian found refuge in Turkey, making it the largest refugee host country in the world. Different from other refugee-hosting countries, almost all the refugees live in urban areas, which makes it easier for them to benefit from social and economic opportunities. This paper analyzes the impact of Syrian refugees on young (15-17 years) native’s labor mar-ket outcomes using Turkish Household Labor Force Surveys from 2004-2018. We employ a difference-in-difference IV methodology, using the variation in refugees to native ratio and a distance instrument. We find a positive effect on native boys’ employment and no effect on native girls. In addition, there is no effect on child labor and working hours for both males and females, while there is a positive effect on boys’ labor force participation only. Controlling for the heterogeneity of refugee’s effect using household head education level, we find a positive effect on native boy’s employment and labor force participation when the household head is less educated.