Finance in Displacement: Joint Lessons Report

By Kim Wilson (Tufts University) and Hans-Martin Zademach (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)

Managing finances is challenging for most people, but it is truly daunting for migrants and refugees. They face numerous hurdles that range from obtaining the right documents to securing permission to work—obstacles that limit both their income and their opportunities to make longer-term investments. Between 2019 and 2021, a research collaborative between Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Tufts University, and the International Rescue Committee conducted research in Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, and Uganda on refugees and migrants, focusing on those who had been in their host countries between three and eight years. We chose this time period to capture their early arrival experiences and longer-term coping and integration strategies. In total, we conducted 428 interviews,2 organized field observations, and utilized focus groups in two locations. The aim of our research was to understand how refugees and migrants financially integrated into their host surroundings and how financial services played a role in that integration.


For questions, please contact Kim Wilson at kimberley.wilson@tufts.edu.

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