Forced migration

Deportees to Siberia by Kazimierz Alchimowicz (1894), National Museum in Warsaw, illustrating the torment of Polish Siberian deportees, patriots from the Russian zone of partitioned Poland in the period following the collapse of the January Uprising.

General deportation currents of the dekulakization 1930–1931

Forced migration (also called deracination — originally a French word meaning uprooting) refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region. Migrating in the same country means the person is an Internally Displaced Person (or IDP). It often connotes violent coercion, and is used interchangeably with the terms "displacement" or forced displacement. According to Speare, "In the strictest sense migration can be considered to be involuntary only when a person is physically transported from a country and has no opportunity to escape from those transporting him. Movement under threat, even the immediate threat to life, contains a voluntary element, as long as there is an option to escape to another part of the country, go into hiding or to remain and hope to avoid persecution." However this thought has been questioned, especially by Marxians, who argue that in most cases migrants have little or no choice.^[1] A specific form of forced migration is population transfer, which is a coherent policy to move unwanted persons, perhaps as an attempt at "ethnic cleansing". Someone who has experienced forced migration is a "forced migrant" or "displaced person". Less formally, such a person may be referred to as a refugee, although that term has a specific narrower legal definition.

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Overview

Forced migration has accompanied persecution, as well as war, throughout human history but has only become a topic of serious study and discussion relatively recently. This increased attention is the result of greater ease of travel, allowing displaced persons to flee to nations far removed from their homes, the creation of an international legal structure of human rights, and the realizations that the destabilizing effects of forced migration, especially in parts of Africa, the Middle East, south and central Asia, ripple out well beyond the immediate region.

China.

Causes

Causes for forced migration can include:

• Natural disaster: Occurrence of a disaster leads to temporary or permanent displacement of population from that area. In such a scenario, migration becomes more of a survival strategy. The concept of forced migration envelopes demographic movements like flight, evacuation, displacement, and resettlement.
• Hurricane Katrina resulted in displacement of almost the entire population of New Orleans, leaving the community and government with several economic and social challenges.^[4]

The term environmental refugee has been in use recently representing people who are forced to leave their traditional habitat because of environmental disruption i.e. biological, physical or chemical change in ecosystem.^[5] An elaboration of such refugees is given by Essam El-Hinnawi. The first category is where people return to their original habitat once the disruption is over, as in the case of the Bhopal disaster.

The second classification is where people are permanently displaced. The third type of migrant includes those who seek better living conditions due to deterioration of environmental conditions in their present habitat, such as soil fertility.^[6]

• Development projects (such as the Three Gorges Dam in China)
• Environmental problems: Natural disasters often cause the loss of money, homes, and jobs. In the middle of the 19th century, for example, Ireland experienced a famine never before seen in the country’s history.
• Fleeing persecution (for political, social, ethnic, religious reasons)^[7]
• Slavery
• War/civil war/political and religious conflicts: Some migrants are impelled to cross national borders by war or persecution at home. These immigrants may be considered refugees or asylum seekers in receiving countries."

Status

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that more people in 2012 became refugees or internally displaced people than at any time since 1994. The main cause for this displacement is war, with more than 55 percent of all refugees coming from five war-affected countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. UNHCR says Afghanistan is the world's "top producer" of refugees, a position it has held for 32 years. Forty-six percent of refugees are children under the age of 18. A record 21,300 asylum applications were submitted in 2012 from children who were unaccompanied or separated from their parents.^[8]

Further reading

• Betts, Alexander: Forced Migration and Global Politics. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Luciuk,Lubomyr Y.: "Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada, and the Migration of Memory," University of Toronto Press, 2000. Migration of people from Mirpur(AJK) for construction of Mangla Dam
• Sundhaussen, Holm (2012). Forced Ethnic Migration.  

See also

• Development-induced displacement
• Population transfer
• Refugee roulette
• List of diasporas

References

External links

• International Network on Displacement and Resettlement
• Pictures of Refugees in Europe - Features by Jean-Michel Clajot, Belgian photographer
• Forced Migration Online provides access to a diverse range of relevant information resources on forced migration, including a searchable digital library consisting of full-text documents.
• Forced Migration Review World's most widely read publication on refugee and internal displacement issues
• Back issues of migration journals (Disasters, Forced Migration Review, International Journal of Refugee Law, International Migration Review and Journal of Refugee Studies)
• Eurasylum Many relevant documents on asylum and refugee policy, immigration and human trafficking/smuggling internationally
• IDP Voices Forced migrants tell their life stories
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Norwegian Refugee Council The leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide.
• The International Association for the Study of Forced Migration brings together academics, practitioners and decision-makers working on forced migration issues.
• The International Organization for Migration is a non-governmental organization with a major role mediating modern migration.
• The Journal of Refugee Studies from Oxford University provides a forum for exploration of the complex problems of forced migration and national, regional and international responses.
• Program for the Study of Global Migration, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
• The Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford: a leading multidisciplinary centre for research and teaching on the causes and consequences of forced migration.
• What is Forced Migration?, an introductory guide for those who are new to the subject.
• Wits Forced Migration Studies Programme, Africa's leading centre for teaching and research on displacement, migration, and social transformation.
• Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children