Original publication date: May 2016

Investing one euro in welcoming refugees can yield nearly two euros in economic benefits within five years.

That is a key finding of this report – to our knowledge, the first comprehensive, international study of how refugees can contribute to advanced economies. The return on investing in refugees has been calculated using International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates of the economic impact of asylum seekers and refugees on the European Union (see Appendix). The world is facing its biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, with more than 22 million people forcibly displaced from their countries by war and persecution. Advanced economies such as those of the EU, the United States (US), Australia, Canada and Japan are often reluctant to admit them, partly for cultural reasons but also for economic ones. Yet welcoming refugees is not only a humanitarian and legal obligation; it is an investment that can yield significant economic dividends.