Refugees, economy and initiative for opportunities

The initiative Jordan has recently taken towards integrating the Syrian labour force in its labour market has been received by the international and regional powers with enthusiasm.

Indeed, the topic is expected to have a prominent space during the donor conference discussions that are being held in London today.

This initiative came as a result of the acknowledged fact that the Syrian refugees in Jordan will not leave soon, even if the complex Syrian crisis could be brought to an end soon.

It is also founded on social and humanitarian factors; indeed, no administrative and/or security forces can prevent Syrians able to work from engaging in the Jordanian labour market, and it is not in Jordan’s interest to leave them in poor living conditions by preventing them from working as long as they need a job to cover their and their families’ expenses, in light of the weak international support they receive as refugees.

The initiative is also based on the difficult situation of the Jordanian economy, which has been seriously worsening during the last five years due to several political changes in the region, especially the protracted Syrian crisis.

On the one hand, the control terrorist organisations exert over many of the areas and corridors close to the borders with Iraq and Syria (two countries that have been strategic economic partners of Jordan for decades) led to the closure of the border with Jordan.

On the other hand, the crisis has led to an influx of 1.3 million Syrians to Jordan (refugees and non-refugees), which put severe pressure on Jordan, on its economy and society.

This situation occurred simultaneously with the exposure of the fragile international and European humanitarian protection system during the past few years, since the beginning of the entry of Syrian refugees into the European territory.

Several European countries, as well as America and Canada, refused to receive and host Syrian refugees, using security reasons as a main argument, considering them ticking time bombs at political, economic, social and even cultural levels.

The Syrian refugee crisis tested the credibility of the humanity of this system, a test a very limited number of Western countries and societies passed.

This environment created a favourable ground for promoting the Jordanian initiative as an effective opportunity, not only for Jordan to enhance its ability to overcome the difficult economic and social crisis, but also for Western countries in the European Union and the United States to integrate Syrian refugees.

This will contribute to alleviating the effects of the migration waves and will constitute an opportunity for Jordan to integrate hundreds of thousands of Syrians in a small and weak economy, thus contributing to expanding and enhancing its capabilities.

It would attract quality investments to Jordan, leading to the development of new investment zones, whether free or special ones, which could contribute significantly to overcoming many problems the Kingdom’s economy is facing.

Among the most important benefits, Jordan will be able to increase the capacity of its national economy to generate new and decent jobs, recovering from a significant fall during the past years that led to an increase in unemployment rates, especially among young people.

But this requires from us, Jordanians, an effort to work on adopting several criteria for this kind of foreign investment, in order not to repeat the experience of the Qualifying Industrial Zones, considered areas in Jordan where the worst working conditions are applied and not attractive to potential workers. Indeed, this experience did not provide significant added value to the Jordanian economy.

Any new foreign investment in the framework of this initiative and international momentum has to take into account the priorities set for Jordanian development, in terms of productive and sustainable sectors, necessary technology resettlement, ability to create new, enough and decent jobs in order to absorb unemployed people, as well as the high number of Jordanian newcomers from the national educational system, which is now approaching 120,000 graduates per year, in addition to the Syrian newcomers.

This should also contribute to distributing economic development to the other governorates, which are witnessing the migration of young people to Amman.

Any new investment under this initiative must adhere to the international safeguard policies, since they ensure respect for international labour standards and decent working conditions, apply the principle of no selectivity, apply and respect standards that could reduce potential environmental risks on the local communities, and emphasise the point of not dealing with weak labour and environmental conditions as a competitive advantage to attract foreign investments.

With this approach, the implications and impact of this important and smart initiative can be a turning point for Jordan’s economic development, providing new additional values and a historic opportunity that can be exploited to bring Jordanian economy out of the successive crises, with a positive impact on the society.

This opportunity must not be wasted.

The writer is director of the Phenix Centre for Economic Studies. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.