Building Stability Between Host and Refugee Communities through TVET Programming

The resettlement of refugees in new regions has long been linked with the onset of social tensions and potential conflict, both between hosts and refugees and between hosts and their national governments. Naturally, attention turns to what might be able to reduce or minimize these risks. In this project, we study the impact of a Mercy Corps’ technical and vocational education and training (TVET) intervention implemented for both Syrian refugees and members of local host communities in both Jordan and Lebanon. We study the economic outcomes of participants and non-participants, proxied via employment status at the end of the training period. We test for social impacts using a set of “ingroup-outgroup” games, in order to understand whether or not participation in the program changes the degree of preference for members of one’s own group or bias against those of other groups. A set of heterogeneity tests seek to understand whether or not outcomes differ, or are common, across members of the host and refugee communities.