Syrian Refugee Crisis: A Socioeconomic and Geopolitical Disaster
The conflict within Syria have led to an estimated 7.6 million people displaced and
3.7 million Syrians leaving the country (Ostrand, 2018). The clash between the
government of Bashar al-Assad and opposing parties have turned vast lands into warlordruled areas. This caused mass displacement leading to the Syrian Refugee crisis. Millions
of refugees fled their home to find settlements in neighboring countries such as Lebanon,
Turkey, and Jordan (OCHA, 2014). These countries are carrying the most burden out of
the crisis amidst the countries’ lack of capabilities to support Syrian Refugees. This paper
explores, the costs of the crisis to both the neighboring countries and refugees as well as
the possible solutions to ease the burden.
Due to the geographic proximity, it is an obvious destination for Syrians to be
refugees in Lebanon (Dionigi, 2016). However, Lebanese state institutions are lacking the
capacity to provide essential services not only to the refugees but also to Lebanese
nationals. As a result, the refugee crisis, as Dionigi (2016) states, may be a destabilizing
factor to the social, political, and economic context of Lebanon in the upcoming years.
The effect by the Syrian refugees, strain the local communities as competition for
essential services are increased in the low resource nation, Lebanon. Moreover, the
Syrian refugees’ impact extend to the labor markets of Turkey. Over half a million Syrian
refugees migrated to Turkey by the end of 2013 (Akgündüz et al., 2015). The entry of
refugees affected the economic and sociological state of Turkey. The increase in demand
for necessities for the Syrian refugees have impacted the economy. This effect ranged
from increasing food and housing prices to affecting employment rates in order to
accommodate the influx of refugees in Turkey. The crisis have also affected the relations
of Jordan and Syrian refugees. Jordan which originally openly accepted refugees have
gone increasingly hostile (Achilli, 2015). Most of Syrian refugees in Jordan are not settled
in camps. The capacity of refugees to pay for rent have negatively impacted the Jordan
housing sector. The entry of refugees also affected the Jordan job market. The impact of
Syrian refugees to the economic sector have deteriorated the Jordanian Government’s
attitude towards the refugees. As a result, Jordan which originally opened its borders, are
now limiting the entry of vulnerable Syrian refugees, restricting refugees’ access to certain
privileges, and profiling refugees in the job market (Achilli, 2015). The non-existent
improvement in Syria’s situation have provided increased migrations resulting to the
weakening of the economic capacity on host states. The acceptance of refugees in
neighboring countries have severely affected the economy of the host countries such as
Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. This leads to unsatisfactory conditions for both the host
country and the refugees.
The Syrian crisis’ impact on host countries’ economies created tensions in global
politics. Host states in the region have repeatedly request economic assistance to support
their nation as well as the refugees. As Tsourapas (2019) explains, the economic impact
of refugees have resulted to strains in international relations as host states resort to
blackmailing—threatening to send the refugees to its borders unless compensated—and
back-scratching—promising to house the refugees if properly compensated. In fact, both
strategies can be used simultaneously as host states struggles. For instance, Lebanon
and Jorden used back-scratching as their foreign policy while Turkey used blackmailing
strategies to emphasize their need for compensation for their significant role in the
refugee crisis (Tsourapas, 2019). Such foreign policies pose socioeconomic and political
risks as it affects the individual life stability of a Syrian refugee. This leads to the question,
are the refugees exploited by the host countries or such foreign policy is justifiable as they
carry most of the burden while their socioeconomic situation is severely impacted by the
influx of refugees?
In order to solve the problem of geopolitical strain amongst neighboring countries,
international partners must intervene and provide supportive humanitarian solution to the
Syrian crisis (Fandrich & Fargues, 2012). As Ostrand (2018) argues, there is insufficient
action done by the international community as a whole to mitigate the Syrian refugee
crisis in terms of both financial assistance and resettlement. First, it is important to share
to the international community, the burden held by Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon in
providing asylum for Syrian refugees. This will reduce the strain among neighboring
countries as the economic aid is given. Second, relocation and resettlement protocols
must be enhanced in order to protect the rights of each refugee. Refugees must be
provided with enhanced avenues for shelter, labor, education, and health care. Ostrand
(2018) suggests to allow Syrian embassies in foreign states to accept refugee
settlements. Providing a system that rewards humanitarian aid and punishes aggression
towards refugees will foster altruism amongst nations while securing the overall safety of
the refugees. Third, a long term goal of resolving the political conflict in Syria itself must
be the central concern of the international community. The plethora of problems caused
by the Syrian crises stems from the local conflict it has. Such conflict has its destructive
effect amplified at a global scale. If the local problem is solved, refugees are able to return
to their home country and the strain it have caused globally will be reduced. Although
resolution is far beyond, it must still be the priority in order to end the crisis.
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