Refugees and the Informal Labour Market: Evidence from Syrian Inflows to Turkey

The paper analyses the labour market effects of the Syrian refugees on Turkish natives. Results suggest that there are no negative effects on native employment, but there is a compositional change in the labour market. On the contrary, there is evidence for positive effects on formal employment which is confirmed by the administrative data. By gender, results are differentiated in a systematic way. For men, while there is an increase in formal employment, informal employment decreases. Results are the opposite for women. There is a reduction in formal employment but no significant change in informal female employment. These results suggest that while refugees are substitutes for women in the formal market and men in the informal market, they are complements to formal male workers.