A location optimization approach to refugee resettlement decision-making

Abstract

Whether due to customary causes or new emerging ones, the ever-growing refugee population precipitates a variety of issues all around the world. Resettlement of individuals and families is an issue that should be regarded carefully by considering different aspects and periods. Perceiving the refugee resettlement as a layered problem, the purpose of the present study is to help decision-makers with arduous resettlement planning by developing a preliminary optimization model. To that end, we transform the capacitated version of the traditional facility location problem into a multicriteria optimization problem that accounts for the physical capacities to meet the refugee needs, the cultural differences along with the physical distances and travel difficulties between origin and host societies, prioritization of the matchings, and the overall success of the resettlement process.