GHEA21 Open Educational Resources

Incentive Labor

Document Type

Case Study

Publication Date

1-2025

Abstract

In this case study, we discuss a special category of refugee work in Kakuma Refugee Camp. ‘Incentive labor’ has been developed by the UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), the governing body of refugees in Kenya and elsewhere, to enable refugees to work given the legal restrictions on employment imposed by the Kenyan state. Incentive work, or what some call “volunteer” positions, is for many refugees one of the few forms of paid labor. The case study, which should be read alongside the documentary film Incentive Labor (Kamoso Bertrand, dir.), asks the following questions: What kind of work do refugees do as incentive workers? How does this work relate to similar work done by Kenyan nationals in the same organizations? What do refugees who are employed as incentive workers think about this system and what kinds of solutions do they propose? What do experts in the International Labor Organization have to say about incentive work and its relation to the law – what solutions do they propose? By exploring these questions, alongside reports written by UNHCR and ILO, we show that despite widespread recognition of the inequities of incentive labor over the last twenty years, very little has been done to address these issues.

Case study written by Laura Kunreuther and Mulki Mohamed

Video case study was produced by Kamoso Jean Bertrand, Adam Mohamed Bashar, and Mulki Mohamed, with Laura Kunreuther (Bard College), Laura Menchaca (Al-Quds Bard) as advisors.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Additional Files
UPDATED FINAL_ Incentive Labor Case Study with Abstract.docx.pdf (495 kB)
Incentive Labor PDF
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