Forced Migrations – What, Why and Where?

Conflict in Mali, earthquake in Haiti, Katrina Hurricane, floods in Bangladesh – they all have one common denominator. They produced consequences that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and find a place of refuge. Forced migrations are obviously becoming a big problem in the wake of 21th century.

  

“Greater numbers of people are more vulnerable to natural and other hazards than ever before, due in part to increases in population, but more so to their location in dangerous areas” (Oliver-Smith 2006). Migration statistic numbers are self-evident and prove that forced migration is a huge problem that needs to be tackled. According to United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2008)[1], the total number of international migrants has increased for approximately 42 % over the last 10 years - from an estimated 150 million in 2000 to 214 million persons today. The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world has grown from 21 million in 2000 to 27.5 million at the end of 2010 (Norwegian Refugee Council 2010)[2]. The number of refugees declined from 15.9 million in 2000 to 15.4 million in 2010, however, due to a change in methodology in a number of countries, figures as from 2007 are not fully comparable with pre-2007 figures (UNHCR 2010)[3]. The World Disasters Report (2012) only confirms that “forced displacement is one of the most acute and visible consequences of disasters and conflict. Its scale and complexity have increased dramatically in recent years.” The report estimates that there is around 72 million forced migrants in the world today.

Defining the phenomenon

Let’s start with the necessary precondition for understanding this phenomenon – definition. First we need to clarify the terms from the introductory part. According to Guiding principles in Internal Displacement (UN OCHA 2004), IDPs are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes /…/, in particular as a result of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.” In contrast, a refugee is a person who fears persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinions, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or unwilling (because of fear) to avail himself of the protection of that country (ibid.).

Let’s focus now on the phenomenon of forced migration. The concept of forced migration refers to a variety of demographic movements, such as: flight, evacuation, displacement, resettlement, as well as forced migration – in which people must move to a new and usually distant place (Oliver-Smith 2006). It is a migratory movement in which an element of coercion exists, including threats to life and livelihood, whether arising from natural or man-made cause. Forced migrations are for example movements of refugees and internally displaced persons as well as people displaced by natural or environmental disasters, chemical or nuclear disasters, famine etc. (International Organization for Migration 2013a).

What leads to forced migrations?

As already mentioned above, causes for forced migrations vary. Wood (1994, 615) identifies three groups of factors that play an important role in “unleashing” forced migrations. The first big factor is political instability and war, the second is life-threatening economic decline and ecological crisis and the third are ethnic, religious, and tribal conflicts. World Disasters Report (2012) is a little bit more specific – the causes it identifies are  persecution, torture and other serious human rights violations; armed conflict; political instability, weak governance and state repression; indiscriminate violence; natural hazards and disasters; man-made environmental crises; climate and environmental change.

Which one of the mentioned causes is the most frequent one behind forced migrations?  That is not so easy to determine. Let’s have a look at it step by step. According to statistics, the biggest crisis regarding forced migrations concerns Africa. Estimated number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Africa at the end of 2010 is 11.1 million people, which makes up 40 per cent of the world's total IDP population (IDMC 2010).[4] African countries with the most IDPs are Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. All of these countries have had a difficult experience with civil war so we could therefore conclude that the most frequent cause for forced migrations is political instability and war – together with ethnic, religious and tribal conflicts. We should keep in mind though that conflict usually induces economic crisis and famine so in reality all the causes of forced migrations are really inseparably connected. World Disasters Report (2012) emphasizes that often it is a combination of such factors that cause displacement.

Dangers lurking for forced migrants

»Forcibly uprooted migrants are often affected by the same factors that affect most other types of migrants. These include: declining real incomes; /…/ new experiences of ethnic tension and discrimination as an "outsider"; loss of traditional social status; new educational and language barriers; and weakening of traditional values« (Wood 1994). Forced migrants are often facing life-threatening dangers in transit, such as people smuggling, trafficking and exploitation and abuse upon reaching their destinations. Regardless of their legal status, they face serious humanitarian challenges (World Disasters Report 2012, 13).

We will look at the legal problems in one of the subsequent articles, but we do need to set out some starting points. Frelick (2009, 17) identifies a big problem that concerns IDPs. He says that while the refugee definition and protection is quite clear – as already mentioned above, a refuge is someone who is unwilling or unable to avail himself of the protection of his government. In contrast, the definition of an IDP fails to mention protection and does not clearly delineate when a person ceases to be internally displaced. This is a problem because IDPs are often in need of special protection because the government which is responsible for protecting them is sometimes unwilling or unable to do so, or may even be the root cause of displacement. Also, causes of displacement and the experience of being displaced are often similar for both IDPs and refugees (Brun 2005).

Forced migrations are obviously remaining a big problem which the international community will have to tackle. The prospects are looking grim because the numbers of forced migrants are increasing – and will probably tend to increase in the future.  

Tamara Kajtazović

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This is a series of background articles on the topic of forced migrations. In the next sequels I will analyze in depth international legal framework and the role of international community.

References:

Brun, Cathrine. 2005. Internal displacement - 'Internally displaced persons' - the category. Available via: http://www.forcedmigration.org/research-resources/expert-guides/internal-displacement/internally-displaced-persons-the-category (March 17^th 2013). 

Frelick, Bill. 2009. Displacement without end: internally displaced who can't go home. Forced Migration Review 17: 10-12. Available via: http://repository.forcedmi gration.org/show_metadata.jsp?pid=fmo:4850 (March 17^th 2013).

International Organization for Migration. 2013a. Key Migration Terms. Available via: http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/about-migration/key-migration-terms-1.html#Forced-migration (March 16^th 2013).

International Organization for Migration. 2013b. Facts and figures. Available via: http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/about-migration/facts--figures-1.html (March 16^th 2013).

Oliver-Smith, Anthony. 2006. Disasters and Forced Migration in the 21st Century. Available via: http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/Oliver-Smith/ (March 16^th 2013).

UN OCHA. 2004. Guiding principles in Internal Displacement. Available via: http://www.unhcr.org/43ce1cff2.html (March 17^th 2013).

Wood, William B. 1994. Forced Migration: Local Conflicts and International Dilemmas.  Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84 (4): 607-634. Available via:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2564146 (March 17^th 2013).

World Disasters Report. 2012. Available via: http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/99703/1216800-WDR%202012-EN-LR.pdf#page=18 (March 17^th 2012).

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[1] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2008. Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2008 Revision. IN International Organization for Migration (2013b).

[2] Norwegian Refugee Council. 2010. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre's (IDMC) Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2010. IN International Organization for Migration (2013b).

[3] UNHCR. 2010. UNHCR Global Trends 2010. IN International Organization for Migration (2013b).

[4] IDMC. 2010. Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2010. IN International Organisation for Migration (2013b).