Influence of Socio-economic Factors on Empowerment of Urban Refugee Youths in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The ever-increasing rate of urbanization has led to a surge in the number of refugees and asylum seekers in the urban areas in the twenty first century. Although there are wellwishers who ensure that rights of refugees living in urban areas across the globe including Kenya are protected and that they easily access their basic needs, much is not known whether these individuals can become self-empowered in coming years and avoid overreliance on humanitarian aid initiated through different projects. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of socio-economic factors on empowerment of urban refugee youths in Nairobi County, Kenya. The objectives of this study were: to examine the influence of human capital development factors on empowerment of urban refugee youths, to assess the influence of financial capital development factors on empowerment of urban refugee youths, to assess the extent to which social capital development factors influence the empowerment of urban refugee youths and finally to establish the influence of advocacy support on the empowerment of urban refugee youths. All this was done in Nairobi County, Kenya. Descriptive Survey Design is what this study confided itself on. The research targeted 2972 urban refugee youths aged between 18-36 years and had to be registered by UNHCR and RAS in Nairobi County. 297 respondents were used as the sample size for this study and were selected through proportionate stratified sampling. Furthermore, quantitative and qualitative data was collected by use of research questionnaires. The data was analyzed by both descriptive analysis and inferential analysis so as to determine the extent to which the variables were related. Data was further analyzed through use of standard deviations, means, percentiles and Pearson Correlations and also presented in form of frequency tables, as well as in prose form. The study’s key findings indicated that human, financial, social capital development as well as advocacy support positively influenced empowerment of urban refugee youths in Nairobi County and they all yielded strong positive Pearson Correlation Coefficients of r=0.896; r=0.868; r=0.787 and r=0.912 respectively. Overall, composite mean and standard deviations that were yielded by the four objectives were M=4.03; SD=0.966; M=3.72; SD=1.127; M=3.18; SD=1.050 and M=3.97; SD=.0997 respectively. The study recommended support organizations to engage more professionals to ensure that urban refugee youths are equipped with more relevant and numerous skills that can ensure that human capital development is steadily increased. The target groups should be trained by the support agencies more on entrepreneurial skills and further more increase the funds that support the urban refugee youths in starting their businesses in order to achieve financial capital development. The urban refugee youths should be involved in decision making concerning matters to do with their wellbeing and support in order to achieve social capital development. Finally, agencies should create awareness to ensure that advocacy support reach all urban refugee youths in Nairobi County.