Migration

Migration is the process by which individuals, families, or groups move from one country of residence to work or settle in another. Originally used to refer to the temporary movement of people to find seasonal or longer-term employment, migration is now more commonly used to refer to a wide range of processes and phenomena that involve movement from one country to another for a variety of reasons. It is also common for individuals to migrate within a country as well as between two states, for example, between rural and urban areas. The academic study of migration therefore involves a wide range of phenomena, such as labor migration and types of forced migration.

Labor migration refers to the movement of individuals seeking employment in another country. A number of trends have historically been associated with this term, among them the movement of rural populations to urban centers during the process of industrialization in Western Europe and the United States, the movement of indentured labor during the colonial period for the building of railways or mines, and contemporary migration of workers in high-tech industries that require specialized knowledge and technical skills. Labor migration has also been actively encouraged within some economic areas, such as the European Union (EU), where citizens of member states are granted freedom of movement to work in other European countries.

Another prominent area of migration is that of forced migration. This term refers to the migration of people who may be fleeing persecution, civil war, or humanitarian crises such as genocide; people who have been smuggled or trafficked; and those fleeing natural disasters such as flood or famine. Forced migration is commonly used to refer to all these cases and is concerned with individuals as refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced people (IDPs) rather than as migrants. The right to asylum and refuge from instances of persecution and crisis is guaranteed under the 1951 Geneva Convention and is overseen by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Individual states and regional organizations such as the EU draw on UN conventions in formulating their own immigration and asylum policies. Individuals may also be forced to migrate within their own states and are referred to as IDPs. UNHCR estimates that twentyfive million IDPs have been displaced by conflict, persecution, and humanitarian crises of various kinds.

Migration is sometimes used synonymously with immigration, but the two should not be confused. Many different types of migration refer to more complex phenomena than the process of leaving one country to settle in another.