Abstract
This chapter reviews the state of knowledge on forced migration or displacement, which is defined as coerced or involuntary movement from one’s home. The review concentrates on conflict-induced displacement, and, as such, on refugees and internally displaced persons. While the numbers of forced migrants are high in human terms (over 44 million refugees and internally displaced persons as of 2014), conflict-induced forced migrants comprise a small proportion of the over 232 million migrants (voluntary and forced) estimated to be living outside of their home countries and the additional hundreds of millions of internal migrants worldwide. Yet their relevance is quite weighty in terms of the importance of forced migration’s impact on policy and politics. The chapter also includes an overview of recent social scientific studies on selected topics in the forced migration including: the interdisciplinary research field of forced migration studies; empirical knowledge of forced migrant populations; changing policy and practice in humanitarian responses; displacement outcomes; methodological and ethical issues in forced migration research; and current and future key areas for research.
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Notes
- 1.
The 1951 UNHCR Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (hereinafter referred to as “1951 UNHCR Convention”) defines a refugee as “someone 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, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
- 2.
This concept describes the complex and dynamic interactions between voluntary and forced migration , and as such indicates that the lines between voluntary and forced migrants are often blurry.
- 3.
Self-settled forced migrants, urban refugee s and IDPs are less frequently counted.
- 4.
Agier (2011, 109) gives the example of camp Lainé in Guinea in 2003, where at the same time Médecins Sans Frontières counted 21,000 predominantly Liberian refugees and the UNHCR 28,000.
- 5.
Chimni (2009, 13) contends that it is connected to a changing concept of humanitarianism , in particular political humanitarianism which allows for “intrusive and muscular humanitarianism on the one hand and communitarian rationales for the validation of bound borders on the other hand.”
- 6.
While refugees or IDPs are in camps they are not allowed to work for pay, a fact that causes many not to live in a camp but rather self-settle (Agier 2011). Dick (2002) in her study about Liberian refugees in the Buduburam refugee camp and self-settled refugees in Ghanaian towns concludes that they are not (totally) reliant on assistance. This is also confirmed by Omata (2012) who shows that Liberian refugees have continued to stay in Buduburam despite they drastically reduced aid. (See also Betts et al. 2014).
- 7.
It is important to note that there is significant controversy about the diagnosis of PTSD, and particularly the applicability of “trauma ” frameworks for understanding the experiences of refugees and other forced migrants.
- 8.
Hugman et al. (2011) describe that consent forms for research with refugees are approved by university internal review boards (IRBs), but that this does not address the issue that refugees—living in precarious situations in faraway places—do not have the means to seek redress in case of unethical or abusive research practices.
- 9.
Refugees often seek asylum in their former colonial powers.
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Reed, H.E., Ludwig, B., Braslow, L. (2016). Forced Migration. In: White, M. (eds) International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution. International Handbooks of Population, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_27
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