TY - JOUR T1 - Economic Impact on Host Communities: A Comparative Study of Rohingya and Afghan Exodus TT - Economic Impact on Host Communities: A Comparative Study of Rohingya and Afghan Exodus AU - Abbası, Amna Nisar AU - Tariq, Humza AU - Umair, N. PY - 2022 DA - April Y2 - 2021 JF - Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler ve Eğitim Dergisi JO - USBED PB - Aytekin Demircioğlu WT - DergiPark SN - 2687-3060 SP - 229 EP - 252 VL - 4 IS - 6 LA - en AB - Rohingyas of Myanmar have achieved the status of refugees while escaping from violent torture and mass killing under the military of Myanmar. The Muslim community of Rohingya witnessed an extreme level of persecution for many years in this regard. Bangladesh has welcomed the Rohingya refugees as the country was the very next destination for the refugees. This research paper based on empirical evidence aims to uncover the economic impacts of the Rohingya crisis on the host country in recent years. In Bangladesh, all the development indicators are facing an upward trajectory in GDP. Obviously, the influx of migrants is a huge burden for the local economy. The refugee crisis has especially hit the region of Cox’s Bazar. The study aims to draw the attention of policymakers to the deteriorating effects of the influx of refugees both at present and in the future. It is time that the international community comes forward and forces the government of Myanmar to resolve the issue in order to help Bangladesh to get out of the extreme distress of the refugee influx. Furthermore, the crisis is analyzed keeping into consideration the case of Afghan refugees which also imposed a huge burden on the economy of Pakistan. Though very limited data is available in this regard the empirical results clearly indicate that Afghan refugees also produced a negative impact on the economic growth of Pakistan. Few important conclusions are developed through the comparative analysis of two case studies which finally entail that refugee influx can never be a boon to a country. Simply, such a crisis lowers real economic activities for host countries. KW - Rohingya refugees KW - Cox’s Bazar KW - ARSA KW - Afghan refugees N2 - AbstractRohingyas of Myanmar have achieved the status of refugees while escaping from violent torture and mass killing under the military of Myanmar. The Muslim community of Rohingya witnessed an extreme level of persecution for many years in this regard. Bangladesh has welcomed the Rohingya refugees as the country was the very next destination for the refugees. This research paper based on empirical evidence aims to uncover the economic impacts of the Rohingya crisis on the host country in recent years. In Bangladesh, all the development indicators are facing an upward trajectory in GDP. Obviously, the influx of migrants is a huge burden for the local economy. The refugee crisis has especially hit the region of Cox’s Bazar. The study aims to draw the attention of policymakers to the deteriorating effects of the influx of refugees both at present and in the future. It is time that the international community comes forward and forces the government of Myanmar to resolve the issue in order to help Bangladesh to get out of the extreme distress of the refugee influx. Furthermore, the crisis is analyzed keeping into consideration the case of Afghan refugees which also imposed a huge burden on the economy of Pakistan. Though very limited data is available in this regard the empirical results clearly indicate that Afghan refugees also produced a negative impact on the economic growth of Pakistan. Few important conclusions are developed through the comparative analysis of two case studies which finally entail that refugee influx can never be a boon to a country. Simply, such a crisis lowers real economic activities for host countries. CR - Ahmad, S. M., & Naeem, N. (2020). Adverse Economic Impact by Rohingya Refugees on Bangladesh: Some Way Forwards. International Journal of Social, Political and Economic Research, 7(1), 1-14. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3698176 CR - Baha, L. (1986). Afghan refugees: Socioeconomic implications. Islamic Studies, 25(2), 161-179. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20839765?seq=1 CR - Baloch, A., Shah, S. Z., Noor, Z. M., & Lacheheb, M. (2017). The economic effect of refugee crises on neighbouring host countries: Empirical evidence from Pakistan. International Migration, 55(6), 90-106. DOI:10.1111/imig.12389 CR - Bhatty, S. (1987). Impact of the Afghan refugees on Pakistan. FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1674/ CR - Centlivres, P., & Centlivres-Demont, M. (1988). The Afghan refugee in Pakistan: An ambiguous identity. J. Refugee Stud., 1, 141. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/85213452.pdf CR - Chambers, R. (1986). Hidden losers? The impact of rural refugees and refugee programs on poorer hosts. International migration review, 20(2), 245-263. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2546034?seq=1 CR - Huang, C., Ash, N., Marcus, S., & Kate, G. (2018). The Rohingya Crisis: Bangladesh Deserves a Win-Win Solidarity Compact. Center for Global Development. Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/rohingya-crisis-bangladesh-deserves-win-win-solidarity-compact CR - Kim, H. (2017). A Complex Crisis: The Twisted Roots of Myanmar’s Rohingya Conflict. Global Asia, Vol.12, No.3,( Sep, 2017): 259 Available at: https://www.globalasia.org/v12no3/focus/a-complex-crisis-the-twisted-roots-of-myanmars-rohingya-conflict_hyuk-kim CR - Khan, M., & Dempster, H. (2019). Sharing Responsibility for the Rohingya Crisis What Role Can Labor Mobility Agreements Play. Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/sharing-responsibility-labor-mobility.pdf CR - Kipgen, N. (2017). The Rohingya conundrum (Special Report #186). Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep09383.4.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Adc5234b89452d4eb5e8070a07e974f72 CR - Mahmud, T. (2017). Rohingya Influx: 15- year- old forestation project destroyed in 57 days. Dhaka Tribune. Available at: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2017/10/21/rohingya-influx-15-year-old-forestation-project-destroyed-57-days CR - OCHA. (2018). Rohingya Refugee Crisis. Available at: https://www.unocha.org/rohingya-refugee-crisis CR - Population Trends. (n.d). UNFPA. Available at: https://bangladesh.unfpa.org/en/node/24314 CR - Sajjad, T. (2020). What Motivated the country to open up its borders. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/as-bangladesh-hosts-over-a-million-rohingya-refugees-a-scholar-explains-what-motivated-the-country-to-open-up-its-borders-133609 CR - Siddique, W. (2019). The impact of Rohingya refugees on the local host community: the case of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh (Master's thesis). Available at: https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/116089/SiddiqueWahiduzzaman.pdf?sequence=2 CR - The New Nation. (2017). Cox’s Bazar Tourism Sector Faces Serious Setback. Available at: https://thedailynewnation.com/news/154542/coxs-bazartourism-sector-faces-serious-setback.html CR - UNHCR. (2019). Population Map. Available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/74385 CR - UNDP. (2019). Impacts of the Rohingya Refugee Influx on Host Communities. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/impacts-rohingya-refugee-influx-host-communities CR - UNHCR. (n.d.). Pakistan. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/pakistan.html CR - Wake, C., & Bryant, J. (2018). Capacity and complementarity in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh. Capacity and complementarity in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh. Available at: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/12554.pdf CR - YILMAZ, M. L., & Talukder, M. I. A. Economic Impact of Rohingya Exodus on Bangladesh. Liberal Düşünce Dergisi, 24(95), 111-129. Available at: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/823860 UR - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/usbed/issue//1004878 L1 - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2010340 ER -