Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Market Outcomes of Refugees and Nationals in Kenya
This paper investigates the labor market outcomes for refugee and urban national communities in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic, using five waves of a novel high-frequency phone survey collected between May 2020 and June 2021. Even after conditi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/839821646670068778/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-Labor-Market-Outcomes-of-Refugees-and-Nationals-in-Kenya http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37113 |
| Summary: | This paper investigates the labor
market outcomes for refugee and urban national communities
in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic, using five waves of a
novel high-frequency phone survey collected between May 2020
and June 2021. Even after conditioning on age, gender,
educational attainment, and area of living, only 32 percent
of refugees were employed in February 2020 compared with 63
percent of nationals. With the onset of the pandemic in
March 2020, the share of employed for both refugees and
nationals fell by around 36 percent, such that in May-June
2020, only 21 percent of refugees were still employed
compared with 40 percent of nationals. Using a panel setup
with wave and location fixed effects, the analysis finds
that the recovery in the share of employed, hours worked,
and household incomes was slower and often stagnant for
refugees compared with the recovery of nationals. These
differences cannot be explained by demographic factors,
living in an urban or camp environment, having been employed
previously, or sectoral choice, suggesting that a third,
unobservable “refugee factor” inhibits refugees’ recovery
after a major shock and aggravates preexisting vulnerabilities. |
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