Syrian Refugees and Gender Inequalities within Households: Evidence from Turkey

This paper uses data from the Turkish Household Labour Force Survey (2005–2020) to examine how Syrian refugee inflows affect gender inequality within households. Employing a shiftshare IV strategy based on the historical share of Arabic-speaking populations in Turkey in 1965, we find that increased refugee inflows are linked to greater intra-family gender inequality in households where both spouses work. Although the average effect is modest, it becomes sizeable when family dynamics are considered too. A 10% rise in refugee stock leads to a 3.85% increase in the gender productivity penalty for households with at least one child, while no effect is observed in childless families. These findings suggest that refugee migrants are closer substitutes for native female than male workers. Finally, we argue that conservative cultural norms may contribute to undermining the labor market position of native married women as the supply of migrant male workers grows.