Iraq – Reasons To Remain (Part 2): Determinants Of IDP Integration Into Host Communities In Iraq (2019)

In order better to understand what the local integration of internally displaced persons (IDPs) may look like in Iraq, IOM Iraq, the Returns Working Group (RWG), and Social Inquiry implemented a targeted in-depth study in Sulaymaniyah and Baghdad Governorates. Utilizing data on IDPs’ perceptions and living conditions in displacement from those displaced more than three years (762 respondents) and data collected among host community residents (800 respondents) in the same neighbourhoods and towns in these governorates, this work seeks to identify which factors help or hinder local integration.

The findings presented herein highlight that socioeconomic, cultural, and spatial factors at the individual and structural levels matter for integration and acceptance. Most of the evidence collected here points to the fact that better integration and acceptance is found among more socioeconomically equal communities, those with strong but more elastic social cohesion, and in places where host communities feel historical grievances related to violence and conflict have been dealt with satisfactorily