Th e E c onom ic Sec urity of R efu ge e s: S oc ial C ap i t a l, Remitt a nc e s, and Hu manit a rian

When refugees flee their homes, poverty follows close behind. In their flight from armed conflict or the threat of persecution, people have to leave behind their livelihoods and most of the productive assets—houses, livestock, tools—that constitute their economic and financial security. Those refugees who go to camps can usually find emergency humanitarian assistance and food aid, but this assistance is insufficient to meet even basic needs over the long term. Most refugees do not end up in camps; they live among—and sometimes sharing the houses of—the local population of the areas to which they flee. In these often very poor host communities, refugees must negotiate the difficult economic and legal terrain of their new locations and find new ways to provide for themselves and their families. Most of the world’s 15 million refugees (and 25 million internally displaced people) live in Africa and Asia. About a quarter are in camps, but most live among the local population in both urban and rural areas, and many refugees are caught up in the urbanization flows characterizing these regions. How to support refugees who do not live in camps, and who are also part of the huge urban migrant populations in cities, is a daunting problem for aid agencies, and the topic of refugee livelihoods has gained attention recently as aid agencies seek to assist refugees by supporting their livelihoods. But for most refugees living outside camps, humanitarian aid is a relatively minor component of their economic security.