Under the patronage of the Minister of Planning and International cooperation and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Higher Population Council, Dr. Mary Qawar, the Higher Population Council (HPC) released the results of a study and a policy brief on the “Population Characteristics of Syrians in Jordan and Opportunities to Address challenges of the Syrian Crisis in the Jordanian Labor Market” on Tuesday at an event attended by relevant national stakeholders.
Carried out by HPC in cooperation with partners, the study analyzed the population characteristics and level of skills of Syrians in Jordan and aimed to boost opportunities of addressing challenges brought on the Jordanian labor market by the Syrian refugee crisis, serve all concerned parties, prepare the adequate environment for Syrian investments in Jordan, and increase Jordan’s ability to benefit from the current demographic transition.
In her speech, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Dr. Mary Qawar, underlined the Government of Jordan’s efforts to boost growth rates, enhance the prosperity of citizens, strengthen the resilience of Jordan and turn challenges to opportunities by maintaining macroeconomic and fiscal stability, pressing ahead with structural reforms and improving the business and investment environment. Dr. Qawar stressed the important contribution the study makes to enhancing interagency cooperation in Jordan to promote welfare, progress and prosperity and noted that the figures and statistics contained in the study will provide guidance to decision-makers in formulating adequate policies for this issue in line with the vision of his Majesty King Abdullah II.
Qawar explained that the Government of Jordan seeks to enhance partnerships between Jordanian and Syrian labor thereby providing economic and social levers and maximizing development gains. She added that since the influx of Syrian refugees started, the government has been integrating Syrian refugees in vocational and technical training and qualification programs which are tailored to meet labor market needs by supporting technical training projects aimed at Jordanians and Syrian refugees.
In addition, HPC Secretary General, Dr. Abla Amawi, said that HPC carried out this study within the framework of its role as a central agency for all population and development-related issues and information and a contributor to policies, strategies and executive plans in this field. She explained that Syrians now represent 14% of the total population of Jordan and their presence has had direct and indirect impact on different development sectors including, health, education and services given the scarcity of available resources in addition to the economic and social impact on the Jordanian society.
Amawi noted that a key priority for HPC is to prepare the appropriate environment for Jordan to take advantage of the current demographic transition to help realize and invest in the demographic dividend, which is expected to reach its peak in 2040, and this requires intensified and harmonized efforts at the national level to support HPC in promoting population policies for addressing the challenges faced by society, mainly the refugee crisis and its impact on the age structure of the population and the labor market in line with the sustainable development goals, the Vision 2025 Strategy, and national interests. Amawi pointed out that the release of the results of the study and the policy brief on this day coincides with the International Migrants Day which is celebrated every year on the 18th of December.
On the other hand, UNFPA representative in Jordan, Layla Baker, said that the UNFPA has started to move to developmental assistance rather than relief and humanitarian assistance and underlined the partnership between UNFPA and national stakeholders to achieve and ensure a stable and prosperous economy and target the underlying factors that help turn challenges to opportunities to support government efforts of enhancing economic and social policies.
In his presentation, HPC chief researcher, Ghaleb Al Azzeh, explained the main findings of the study and said that the number of Syrians in Jordan reached 1.27 million in 2015, of whom 1.05 million were identified as refugees according to the General Housing and Population Census, while the number of Syrians registered with the UNHCR was nearly 667 thousand across the governorates of Jordan with the highest percentage being in Amman (34.2%), followed by Irbid (27.4%), Mafraq and Zarqa (16.4%) and (13.9%) respectively, while the remaining percentage was distributed across the other governorates. The results of the study showed that, with the exception of Mafraq where the proportion of incoming Syrian refugees was higher than the population of Jordanian residents, the demographic distribution pattern of Syrians by governorate was similar to that before the crisis and reflected the pre-existing distribution imbalance.
According to the results of the study, the age structure of Syrians in Jordan is young. The percentage of children under the age of 15 is about 45%, which is 10 percentage points higher than that of Jordanians, owing mainly to the high total fertility rate of Syrians in Jordan, which stands at 4.7 children per woman of childbearing age, compared to 2.6 children per Jordanian woman, and the high rate of marriages of females below the age of 18, which reached 43.8% of all Syrian marriages in Jordan, compared to 11.6% for Jordanians.
Moreover, the percentage of economically inactive Syrians aged 15 years and over in Jordan was 67.8%. The revised economic participation rate of Syrians in Jordan was 32.2%; 58% among males and 7.9%, among females. The results indicated that the educational attainment level among Syrians aged 13 and above in Jordan was low. Those at the level of (illiterate or literate) stood at around 32.3% while those with basic education were about 50%. The percentage of graduates of vocational education was as low as 0.4%, and 50% of the Syrian workforce were concentrated in the Capital.
According to the survey of the Syrian workforce in the capital, 40% had unique skills to the Jordanian workforce, from the point of view of the Syrian workforce, mainly in the food production sector (26.6%) and the constructions sector (18.4%). Around 10% of the Syrian workforce received training from their Jordanian counterparts, while 11.1% of the Syrian workforce gave training to Jordanians.
The results showed that there is no significant difference between the nature of work that Syrian workers perform in Jordan and their previous work in Syria. One third of the Syrian workers work in irregular jobs with no specific workplace in Jordan, while just over one third had worked in irregular jobs in Syria. The distribution of the Syrian workforce by type of current primary economic activity and previous work in Syria shows that Syrian workers predominantly work in the food and beverages, trade, services and constructions sectors in both cases.
Results showed that 61.5% of the Syrian workers in the capital did not have work permits at the time of the survey. However, Indicators reported a decrease in this percentage according to the statistics of the Ministry of Labor, which revealed that the number of Syrian workers who hold work permits has increased from 2428 in 2012 to 46716 in 2017, owing to GOJ policies in this field. Moreover, 86% of the Syrian workforce in the capital indicated that their relationship with their Jordanian employers was good. 10.1% of the Syrian workers had entered into partnerships with members of the Jordanian workforce and 93% indicated that their partnerships with Jordanians were more than good.
The results of the qualitative studies of Jordanian and Syrian labor indicated that Jordanian workers suffers from tough competition in the labor market mainly due to the low wages, which are not even enough to cover basic living needs, but Syrian workers accept them since they also receive assistance from different sources. The analysis revealed that Syrian workers complained about competition from the Egyptian workforce in the labor market.
With respect to Jordanian and Syrian investors and independent investors, the results of the study indicated that partnerships between Jordanian and Syrian investors were an important entry point for Jordanian and Syrian employment. The study revealed that the majority of these partnerships were based on previous relationships between Jordanian and Syrian investors which was founded on mutual trust.
Moreover, the results showed that the most prominent challenges facing investments in Jordan, from the point of view of independent investors and investment partners, were the limited availability of skilled and professional labor in the industrial sector, the difficulty of recruiting professionals and experts, lack of access to banking facilities, the weak investment environment due to cumbersome related processes, difficult licensing and administrative procedures, difficulties facing first-time, lengthy litigation processes, in addition to the competitive advantage of neighboring countries in terms of availability of skilled labor, and lower costs of energy and rents.
The study presented a set of recommendations to address the challenges of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Jordanian labor market. The recommendations covered scientific studies, similar international experiences in absorbing refugees in local communities in other countries, the labor market and absorption of Syrian labor in the Jordanian labor market, as well as recommendations investments from a legislative and legal aspect, promoting investments in Jordan, Syrian and Jordanian investors in Jordan and joint Jordanian-Syrian investments.
The study mainly recommends promoting Jordan's economy to current and potential investors, promoting and continuously updating investment maps of Jordan to be implemented by the private sector and investors, facilitating partnerships between Syrian and Jordanian investors, informing investors of investment opportunities made available through international relations and agreements between Jordan and the European Single Market and the United States of America, encouraging investors to enter new sectors, approaching donors to support the provision of free-of-charge training for Syrian refugees at the Vocational Training Corporation, and encourage partnerships between the Jordanian and Syrian workers and provide incentives and facilities to them.
The related Policy Brief presented policy options to address these challenges. These include preparing the investment environment to boost and retain Syrian investments in Jordan, consolidating efforts of the government and related international organizations in addressing the challenges brought on by the Syrian refugee crisis, promoting Jordanian-Syrian labor partnerships, controlling unfair competition between Jordanian and foreign labor, enhancing vocational training of Jordanian and Syrian workers and the exchange of training between them.
The study relied on an analysis of the population characteristics of Syrians in Jordan based on the Department of Statistics’ 2015 population and housing census data. It also relied on a survey of the Syrian workforce in the capital, which accounts for 50% of the total Syrian workforce in Jordan, and an analysis of focus group discussions with Jordanian and Syrian workers, investors and business partners.
