Migration

In legal terms, refugee is the status granted to forced migrants who cross borders seeking
international protection in the event of political persecution. According to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), refugee status is declaratory. This means that any person who
qualifies as a refugee is by that very fact a refugee, regardless of the formal recognition of the host
country. However, in a world where state sovereignty is so crucial, the reality is a far cry from the UN
ideal. In reality, asylum seekers only become refugees, and acquire related rights in the host country,
when they can prove to an asylum judge or official that political authorities in their own country are
unable or unwilling to protect them from persecution based on race or ethnicity, nationality, religion,
political opinion, or belonging to a specific social group. International forced migration due to
political-economic crises, global development, criminal violence, or environmental degradation is not
automatically protected by refugee law and international organizations, since these were issued and
designed long before the appearance of widespread phenomena that now lead to a surge of massive
forced displacement. This is not to say that violence or the political economy are new. Rather, it is
that many of their contemporary expressions— generalized criminal violence, drug/human
trafficking, and climate change—fall outside the parameters of core legal instruments and the
mandate of specialized multilateral organizations. Furthermore, the forced migrant is not a legal
category with related rights or international protection. ‘Forced migrant’ is increasingly used as a
social and political term for people who leave their countries for reasons other than economic
necessity or persecution; the former is often termed an ‘economic migrant’ and the latter an ‘asylum
seeker’, who may apply for refugee status.

The study of forced migration as such—and not just political asylum—emerged as a topic in the
1980s, when people started to flee their home countries for reasons other than political persecution,
which is the cornerstone of the international refugee regime.

Politics of international protection

Determining who qualifies as a refugee—who is worthy of international protection—is an essentially

political decision made by nation-states. Certain countries, especially hegemonic and even neo-
colonial powers, have frequently used refugee status to punish, harass, or pressure their political and
economic enemies. For example, from 1966 to 2017, as part of the Cuban Adjustment Act, the US
famously granted immediate asylum to Cuban and Chinese citizens, mostly activists, in an effort to
punish communist regimes (RamjiNogales, Schoenholtz, and Schrag 2008). The scope of this political
decision has nevertheless been influenced by international law. The UN has argued that sovereignty
should not be used as an excuse to refuse legal protection to people suffering from persecution and
other threats, although in practice it often is.

Types of forced migration

Policy and legal discourses of migration establish two basic types of migration: voluntary and forced.
Voluntary migration implies a voluntary decision that is usually based on economic calculations—the
subject seeking better opportunities abroad. In contrast, forced migration, also known as
displacement, implies the subject’s involuntary response to existing political, environmental, and
violence-related threats. However, the line dividing these two types is increasingly blurred, since the
decision to leave somewhere in search of better opportunities is usually linked to poverty,
environmental hazards, generalized criminal violence, international or internal conflict, or failed
development projects.

For policy purposes, forced migration is defined as ‘migratory movement in which an element of
coercion exists, including threats to life and livelihood, whether arising from natural or man-made
causes’. Forced migration has subsumed the definition and the policy of the so-called international
refugee regime, which is part of the modern system of sovereign territorial. The core of the refugee
regime is within the UNHCR and is ruled by its Statute and the 1951 Convention Relating to the
Status of Refugees.

In the refugee regime, policy-makers classify forced migrants according to: 1) geographical
boundaries and 2) the causes of displacement.

 Classification according to geographical boundaries

Asylum seekers

These are individuals who cross international borders seeking protection, but whose claim for
refugee status is still pending. Asylum seekers are often subjected to forms of detention, such as
those arriving in Australia by boat, or people who claim asylum in the United States while not holding
a valid visa.

Refugees

Asylum seekers who have proved before a judge or immigration officer (depending on the country) a
well-founded fear of persecution receive refugee status under the terms of the Convention Relating
to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, the African Convention, and the UNHCR Statute. Even
though states have no obligation to grant asylum or admit refugees, they do have the obligation not
to forcibly return asylum seekers to the countries where they are facing persecution. This is known as
the right to non-refoulement. States may relocate people to countries where they are safe and states
are willing to accept them. These are known as safe third countries. Some countries have a very
limited interpretation of the Convention, and grant asylum to people who have a well-founded fear
of persecution based only on the five protected categories and if the state is unwilling or incapable of
protecting them. Asylum seekers who are granted refugee status by a sovereign state according to
the Convention have several rights that other forced migrants do not, including the same civil rights
and liberties as citizens, the right to work, and access to social services for themselves and their
children (including education and health). In some countries, such as New Zealand, Canada, and
Australia, refugees may become citizens.

People in refugee-like situations

These are ‘groups of persons who are outside their country or territory of origin and who face
protection risks similar to those of refugees, but for whom refugee status has, for practical or other
reasons, not been ascertained’ (UNHCR 2013). These groups include stateless persons and those who
have been denied protection in their own country, like the Bidoon in Kuwait and the Rohingya in
Myanmar

Internally displaced persons (IDPs)

In 1998, the UN issued the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which define IDPs as
‘persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or
places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid, the effects 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’ (UN Commission on
Human Rights 1998). IDPs remain in their home country and have the same rights and duties as
other citizens. The Guidelines recommend that governments ban ‘arbitrary’ displacement such as
that caused by war, conflict, or forced displacement, and that affecting indigenous peoples. It should
be noted that environmental and development-related displacements are not banned, although
governments are called on to protect peasants and indigenous people in cases where development
projects evict local communities.

Groups or people of concern

These include refugees and IDPs who have returned to their home countries spontaneously or in an
‘organized fashion’ that guarantees safety and dignity, with the help of the UNHCR (UNHCR 2018b).
People who have been denied asylum and need humanitarian assistance are also included in these
groups.

 Classification according to the causes

Conflict-induced

This is the typical kind of forced migration, and the most studied in International Relations, since it is
displacement (national or international) caused by international or civil war, or other political or
social processes that lead to persecution under the categories protected by the 1951 Convention.
However, in new types of conflict such as drug and gang wars (that often entail widespread sexual
violence against women), the terms of refugee status according to international law may be
insufficient for individuals who have a well-founded fear of persecution, either because they do not
belong to any of the Convention’s five protected categories or because conflict is assessed as
‘generalized violence’. For example, In Mexico violence due to drug dealing and trafficking has
internally displaced thousands of people.

Environmental or natural disaster-induced

This type of displacement includes the forced mobility of people affected by natural or human-made
disasters related to climate change, environmental degradation, and other natural forces such as
hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and drought. The most affected nations are in Asia, the Caribbean,
and, more disproportionately, small Pacific islands (Small Island Developing States, or SIDS). There is
no specific legal protection for people who cross international borders fleeing human-caused
environmental problems (including climate change, disasters, or degradation). Protection for
‘environmental refugees’ depends on sovereign states, who have no binding obligations to take them
in or to grant them basic rights.

Development induced migration

Economic development projects are the most important cause of displacement in the contemporary
world, even though the UNHCR focuses on conflict-displacement. Projects include population
redistribution, urban development, mining, dams, irrigation schemes, transport, expansion of
agricultural areas, and even conservation projects. Development projects are often justified in terms
of economic progress. In this type of displacement, forced mobility is the result of land and territory
becoming contested spaces, leading to people being evicted, losing their property, jobs, shelter, and
even their sense of community.
For example, in India, 388,794 people have been displaced by 24 projects alone; one of these
projects is the coal-power Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project in Gujarat state, where entire
fishing communities have lost their main economic activity as a result of the plant’s heated
wastewater

Human trafficking

Human trafficking According to the United Nations Trafficking in Persons Protocol, trafficking means
‘transfer’ and use of ‘force’ for exploitation purposes. Sexual trafficking victimizes mostly women and
children, who are exploited in developed countries where consumers are often males from the
developed world (sex tourism). For example, Dubai is known as the capital of human trafficking since
over 100,000 people are trafficked into the country every year. The victims are from Asia and Africa,
and are lured from their home countries with the promise of jobs as domestic servants.

Conclusion

The refugee definition is a response to the political context of specific international wars and
conflicts, such as the First and Second World Wars, many now argue that the category has become
insufficient to grasp the policy and legal needs of contemporary involuntary migration, the causes of
which range from environmental and development phenomena to new types of conflict such as
widespread criminal violence and sexual trafficking. Today, involuntary migration also includes
internally displaced persons, people in refugee-like situations, and people receiving subsidiary
protection. This trend also has implications for how we study the phenomena, so there has been a
recent shift from refugee studies to forced migration studies.