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The objective of this study consists in analyzing the determinants of the internal mobility of refugees in Turkey. We track down this mobility relying on geolocalized mobile phone calls data and bring these measures to a micro-founded gravity model in order to estimate the main drivers of refugee mobility across 26 regions in 2017. Our results show that the movements of refugees are sensitive to income differentials and contribute therefore to a more efficient allocation of labor across space. Comparing these findings with those of individuals with a non-refugee status, we find that refugees are more sensitive to variations of income at origin and to distance, while less responsive to changes in income at destination. These findings are robust to the way mobility is inferred from phone data and to the choice of the geographical unit of investigation. Further, we provide evidence against some alternative explanations of mobility such as the propensity to leave refugee camps, transit through Turkey, social magnet effects and sensitivity to agricultural business cycles.

Our research report employs the D4R data and combines it with 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.