Refugees

Definitions

The term refugee has been scrutinized repeatedly since it was formally defined by the 1951 UN Convention. According to the convention, a refugee is “any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” This definition was legalized in the context of large populations fleeing persecution from the cold war. To be officially considered a refugee since 1951, an individual must prove a well-founded fear of persecution and cross an international boundary. The notion of forced migration, although hotly debated and not exclusive to political persecution, is encapsulated in the term refugee. It is important to closely monitor the ever-evolving debate on the term, as inclusion criteria vary by user, agency, country, and period.

An even larger proportion of related human mobility does not cross an international boundary; these individuals, often fleeing the same persecution or hazards, are not considered refugees, but are termed internally displaced people (IDPs). This group is generally considered to be among the world's most vulnerable citizens because they have no legal recognition, a status inside countries that may question national sovereignty, and no organization is officially mandated to support them. There is widespread international debate on how to better anticipate and meet the humanitarian needs of IDPs.

Asylum seekers are those individuals who, outside their country of origin, seek recognition as a refugee—requests that may or may not be granted. Returnees are refugees who have returned voluntarily to their homes. The word migrant is typically reserved for those departing their homes voluntarily, although debate abounds on the extent of choice an individual has to remain home when agricultural production, water, or livelihood revenue is insufficient to support the household.

Drivers of Forced Migration

By definition, a refugee is driven from his home due to persecution. It is rare, however, that a single driver is responsible for human movement, and persecution can be accompanied or exacerbated by both natural hazards and economic stress. Consensus holds that multiple factors are regularly responsible for migration of all types, and that isolating any one of them may be impossible.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)'s Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement defend IDPs as driven from their homes for many reasons, including conflict, violence, human rights violations, and disasters (triggered by natural or human-made hazards).

There is a growing body of literature that refers to the terms climate refugees or environmental refugees. These terms, even if misnomers, describe populations who are forced from their homes due to such climatic hazards as rising sea levels, floods, cyclones, desertification, or more general degradation of natural environments.

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