The Financial Journey of Refugees

The Financial Journeys of Refugees is a study that investigates what money and financial transactions can reveal about the journeys and experiences of forced migration. Through in-depth qualitative fieldwork in Greece, Jordan, and Turkey, we examine money as a key node of the displacement experience: fueling transactions among formal and informal actors along the way; determining livelihood options; shaping or restructuring kinship networks; and coloring risks, vulnerabilities, or protective forces available to refugees. Our inquiry highlights these transactions and the power dynamics that unfold among refugees as well as between refugees and formal or informal authorities.

This project is part of a working paper series on the migration crisis and state fragility at the Institute for Human Security (IHS). It received support (in alphabetical order) from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, CRS Greece, Danish Refugee Council Turkey, Dignitas, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, GIZ Jordan, the Greek Forum of Refugees, the Henry J. Leir Institute for Human Security, the Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs, Mercy Corps, and the Trampoline House in Denmark.

Watch a discussion of the project on Facebook Live here.

Learn more about the IHS work on migration and state fragility here.