Syrian refugees' impact on the Lebanese economy : an expert view

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to gauge the Lebanese experts' perceptions with regard to the Syrian refugees' impact on the Lebanese economy and to extract accordingly appropriate suggestions for the purpose of managing the expatriates' presence effectively. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is qualitative and mostly inductive in nature; it uses thirty semi-structured interviews, emerging from the service, public and manufacturing sector and analyzes them in a thematic framework to unfold the Lebanese experts' perception of Syrian refugees' impact on the economy. Findings: Results of the analysis revealed that the majority of the Lebanese caucus communicated divergent perceptions apropos the Syrian refugees' impact on the various mentioned economic subsectors. Negative discernments originated mostly from the public education and health, trade, rent values, job retention-growth, wellbeing and environmental resources. The majority found no relationship between Syrian refugees and tourism, private schools and housing values. Initial participants' awareness was mostly directed by pessimistic discernments. Most of the respondents lacked sufficient knowledge of the Syrian refugees' impact on private hospitals. Consumer prices revealed diversified insights. Labor diversification's need was recognized but not encouraged. Lastly, suggestions uncover appropriate amendments to benefit from the refugees' stay. Research limitations/implications: Further research is needed to interview a larger representative sample emerging from further distant Lebanese areas and more diverse professional backgrounds. Additional time and resources are also required to conduct a quantitative study for the purpose of cross-comparing the results and triangulating the findings. The research's design and methods can be replicated in a developed country to check for any discrepancies and to unfold an interesting assessment. Practical implications: From a practical level, the study attempts to highlight the Lebanese experts' opinions with regard to the Syrian refugees' impact on the Lebanese economy, to gauge their awareness a propos the subject and to adopt their suggestions as a base for future proactive and reactive corrective strategies to be adopted by the highest authorities to the smallest businesses and nonprofit organizations. Social implications: The study reveals severe issues related to the residents' hostility toward Syrian refugees, serious environmental and wellbeing challenges as well as numerous complications in the labor market, which need to be addressed seriously by the Lebanese government and municipalities .Awareness among Lebanese residents must also be instilled so that locals can learn to separate their unconscious political hostility from the real objective truth, regardless of its nature. Originality/Value: The qualitative- inductive nature of the research, in a relevant setting and time, made the study valuable and worthy. The conceptual framework developed, contributed to a further solid research base along with the theoretical and empirical frameworks unfolded in the literature review. Amid all the quantitative studies apropos the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, this research's qualitative conceptual framework is considered the first in its form, in treating the Lebanese experts' perceptions without a pre-developed hypothesis.