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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES
Migration and Refugees

1. Migration is the movement of people from one place to another for setting
permanently or temporarily at a new geographic location. Migration can be
external ;from one country to another, as well as internal migration within the
country.
2. A person who is forcefully displaced from there homes due to natural disaster
or a civil disturbance is described as a displaced person. While a person who
is seeking refugee in another country due to political, religious or another form
of persecution in home country make a formal application where refugee is
sought and is described as Asylum Seeker and if this application is successful,
this person’s legal status becomes that of a Refugee.
3. The top ten immigration destinations in 2019 were :
United States
Germany
Saudi Arabia
Russian Federation
United Kingdom
United Arab Emirates
France
Canada
Australia
Italy

4. Migration can be of two types:

5. Voluntary migration-it is based on the free will of the migrating person which
involves factors like economic, political and social due to jobs excessive

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pollution ,hunger, natural disaster ,etc. While Forced migration refers to the
movement of refugees and internally displaced people as well as people
displaced due to famine or developmental projects.
6. The Global Compact For Safe ,Orderly and Regular Migration (Global
Compact For Migration) is the first internationally negotiated statements of
objectives for migration governance although it’s not legally binding in nature .
7. International Migration Day -18th December
8. The leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration which works
closely with governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental partners is
the International Organizations For Migration (IOM) established in 1951 with
headquarters at Switzerland and work under the mandate of the United Nations
.
9. According to the International Organization For Migration latest report ,
“GLOBAL MIGRATION REPORT 2020”. India is the largest country of origin of
international migrants with a 17.5 Million strong diaspora across the world
followed by Mexico 11.8 Million and China 10.7 Million.
10. The total number of international migrants in 2019 were estimated at 270
million and Syria has the highest internally population of displaced person at 6.1
Million. ,
Refugee-
11. A refugee is a displaced person who is forced to cross nation boundaries and
is called as an Asylum Seeker until granted Refugees status by the contracting
state or United Nations
High commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) which is the leading international
Agency Coordinating refugee problems.
12. According to UNHCR , “who are outside their country of nationality or habitual
residence and unable to return their owing to serious and indiscriminate threats
of life, physical integrity or freedom resulting from generalized violence or
events seriously disturbing public orders" , are person recognized as refugees .
13. WORLD REFUGEE DAY ON 20TH JUNE .
14. Basically refugees are the people who are forced to flee their resident country
because of War , Violence or Persecution and such people are protected by
international law specifically the 1951 Refugee Convention that deals with their

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rights. India is having large population of refugees is not a signatory to this
convention .
15. The Rohingyas , an ethnic group from Myanmar are one of the most
persecuted groups in the world and over 13000 Rohingya refugees are
registered with UNHCR lives in India.
16. Globally more than two third of all refugees belongs to give countries
Syria (6.7 million)
Afghanistan ( 2.7 million)
South Sudan (2.3 million)
Myanmar ( 1.1 million)
Somalia (0.9 million)
17. Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees.
18. New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants -
The UNGA unanimously adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and
Migrants on September 19, 2016 which reaffirms the importance of the
International Refugee regime and commitments by member states to strengthen
enhance mechanisms to protect Refugees and Migrants.
It resulted in the adoption of two new Global Compacts in 2018 –
• A Global Compact on Refugees
• A Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

The New York Declaration also sets out the key elements of a Comprehensive
Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) that focuses on supporting those
countries that host large number of Refugees.

Climate Change and Environmental Concerns

• Environment comprises of all living and non living things occurring naturally and
the interests of all living species, climate, weather and natural resources that
affect human survival and economic activity.
• Due to Industrialisation, Globalization and technological progress a concern for
environmental safety globally have assumed a greater significance in the study

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of International Relations as states across the Globe are highly interdependent
in present time.
• Environmental issues covers a vast area which includes Global Warming,
Climate change, Demographic Alteration, Sharing of Natural resources and the
question of International peace and security.
Climate change
• Industrialisation led to the problem of Green House Effect that affected the rise
in Global temperature due to release of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide
and chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere which resulted in the trapping of
heat radiation causing Global Warming and widespread disruption of the
ecological system.
• Climate change have serious repercussions on International relations, therefore,
apart from National government ; International organizations like United Nations
hold regular meetings and summits to discuss environmental issues such as -
■ United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) launched in1972.
■ Earth Summit of 1992 at Rio de Janeiro , Brazil which resulted in five
documents.
1. Rio Declaration – It consists of 27 principles focusing on human role in
protecting the environment. It also hailed as third generation human rights.
2. Agenda 21 – Action program for sustainable development.
3.Forest Principles – It comprises of recommendations for conservation and
sustainable development of forests.
4. Convention on Biological Diversity - A legally binding treaty for
conservation of biological diversity with sustainable use of its components.
5. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) –
To stabilize greenhouse gases emissions in environment.
■ Kyoto Protocol – In 1997 it established a legally binding commitment by
developed states to limit Green house gas and places heavier burden on
developed nations under the principle “Common but differentiated
responsibilities”.

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■ The Vienna Convention on the Protection of Ozone layer, 1985 followed by
Montreal Protocol held in 1987 aims at phasing out the production and
consumption of ozone depleting substances.
■ The Government of India has launched the National Action Plan on Climate
Change (NAPCC) with eight missions that include assessment of the impact on
climate and actions needed to address climate change –
1. National Solar Mission
2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
3. National Mission for Sustainable Habitat
4. National Water Mission
5. National Mission for sustaining Himalayan ecosystems
6. National Mission for a Green India
7. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
8. National Mission on Strategic knowledge for climate change.

Issue of Poverty -
• Poverty is deprivation of basic needs that determine the quality of life such as
food , clothing, shelter, safe drinking water, etc.
• According to the World Bank, Poverty is deprivation in well being and
comprises of many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to
acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity.
• According to the United Nations, Poverty is the inability of having choices and
opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to
participate effectively in Society and living in a Marginal or Fragile Environment.
• Causes of Poverty -
1. Population Explosion
2. Low Agricultural Productivity
3. Inefficiency Resource Utilization
4. Low rate of economic development
5. Price Rise
6. Unemployment
7. Colonial Exploitation
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8. Climate factors and many others.
1. Poverty Line is the level of income below which one cannot afford the basic
resources one requires to live and in India, 21.9 % of the population lives
below the poverty line.
2. In 2018, almost 8% of the world workers and their families lived on less than
US$ 1.90 per person per day (International Poverty Line).
3. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty
and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) launched the Multidimensional
Poverty Index (MPI) in the year 2010.
4. It is based on the idea that poverty is not unidimensional (not only depends on
income) but Multidimensional. Hence , it shows the proportion of poor people
and the average number of deprivation each poor person experiences at the
same time.
5. It uses three major dimensions -
1. Education
2. Health
3. Standard of living
• The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2020 was based on 75 countries
and held that –
□ 1.3 Billion people are still living in Multidimensional Poverty .
□ About 84.3% of Multidimensional poor people live in Sub Saharan Africa and
South Asia
• Ending Poverty in all its forms is the first of the Seventeen Sustainable
Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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