Refugee Mobility: Evidence from Phone Data in Turkey

Our research report employs the D4R data and combines it to several other sources to study one of the multiple aspects of integration of refugees, namely the mobility of refugees across provinces in Turkey. In particular, we employ a standard gravity model to empirically estimate a series of determinants of refugee movements. These include the standard determinants such as province characteristics, distances across provinces, levels of income, network effects as well as some refugee-specific determinants such as the presence of refugee camps and the intensity of phone call interaction among refugees. Importantly, we explore the effect of certain categories of news events, notably protests, violence and asylum grants. Considering news as an indicator of policy implemented at the provincial level we gain a better understanding as to how policy can facilitate refugee mobility and thus enhance integration. To benchmark our findings, we estimate the same model for the mobility of individuals with a non-refugee status.