Unemployment and economic deterioration caused by government failure not the displaced from Syria

Lebanese newspapers publish almost on daily basis statements by officials and experts or field reports describing the general deterioration of the economic and living conditions and blaming scarce job prospects on the influx of Syrian refugees. Usually, these feature stories or articles largely overlook the collective responsibility of political parties in dealing with key issues, particularly their failure in dealing with the refugee problem, a failure resulting from political polarization and political exploitation of the humanitarian dimension of the problem. In an attempt to snub the real causes of the deteriorating conditions, officials boast the latest statistics of unemployment warning of the worst yet to come while mobilizing their constituencies against Syrian workers whom they say are at the root of the problem. In doing so they fail to pinpoint to the responsibility of many who benefit from the low paid Syrian labor. High but still uncertain figures on unemployment figures range between 25% (according to Labor Ministry sources), to 50% among youth (according to As Safir) and 40% among the labor force (Al Diyar). There is no doubt that unemployment rate in Lebanon was high before 2011, with some analysts even saying that the problem is structural and is closely related to the function of Lebanon in the world economy. However, the escalation of the problem following the start of war in Syria is largely due to the failure of the Lebanese government to agree on national priorities and on how to regulate the influx of displacement across the border.