Vulnerability Analysis & Gender: The Comprehensive Demographic Analysis of Female Refugees and Female-Headed Households in Turkey

Ilgi Bozdag , CRIDUP - Centre de Recherche de l'Institut de Demographie de Paris

This paper aims to understand the vulnerability of female refugees and female-headed households by using the Comprehensive Vulnerability Monitoring Exercise which is the only representative survey on a national level on the refugee population living in Turkey. Data is collected by the World Food Programme and Turkish Red Crescent within the multi-purpose cash programme called 'Emergency Social Safety Net' financed by the European Union. The analysis uses the Multidimensional Poverty Index that is constructed particularly for the refugee population living in Turkey. In addition to that, there are some demographic analysis on the family composition of the female-headed households in order to have a better understanding on the definition of the female-headed households which might be discussed in detail in the extended paper. This paper discusses the overall situation of female-headed households compared to male headed households. It also uses the family composition and sub-group the female-headed households based on the nuclear family situation and secondary household members that make up the overall household. The primary results show the vulnerability of the single female households for the refugee population living in Turkey. Afghan refugee women seem to be the most vulnerable in comparison to Syrian and Iraqi women. In addition to that, the education level and Turkish knowledge are much lower compared to male refugees. Inequality within a gender is even more visible for the populations on the move. This shows once again for the necessity of a gendered approach, particularly on migration studies.

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 Presented in Session 65. Crisis-Driven Migration and Its Consequences