The UN Refugee Agency faces a severe funding shortfall, having received only 32 percent of its $8.5 billion 2026 requirement by the end of July, while only about 62 percent of refugees live in countries where they have the legal right to work and far fewer enjoy practical access to formal employment.

The article argues that legal and bureaucratic barriers create costly dependency, citing World Bank findings of generally modest labor-market effects in Colombia, Ethiopia, Jordan, and Uganda, and Jordan’s expansion of Syrian work permits from about 45,000 in 2019 to more than 90,000 in 2023.

It proposes a new bargain in which donors provide preferential development finance for infrastructure and job creation that benefits both citizens and refugees, in exchange for host governments progressively removing unnecessary work barriers.

Perhaps the strangest feature of the modern refugee system is that governments frequently complain about the cost of supporting refugees while simultaneously preventing refugees from supporting themselves.

The UN Refugee Agency is facing one of the most serious financial crises in its history. It estimates it needs $8.5 billion this year to support more than 130 million forcibly displaced and stateless people. By the end of July, however, it had received only 32 percent of that amount. The agency warned last month that 8.3 million people are at risk of losing access to essential assistance because of funding shortages.

Yet, while humanitarian budgets shrink, millions of refugees remain prevented from fully participating in the economies of the countries hosting them.

The latest UN Refugee Agency figures indicate that only about 62 percent of refugees live in countries where they have the legal right to work. Legal rights are only part of the problem. Earlier global surveys found that just 45 percent lived in countries where they enjoyed unrestricted practical access to formal employment. Permits, bureaucracy, restrictions on movement, difficulties opening bank accounts and the failure to recognize qualifications can all prevent refugees from converting a theoretical right to work into an actual job.

The........

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