Human Mobility in the Middle East

Author(s):  
Zahra Babar

Between the two poles of moving purely out of choice or moving because one has no other option but to leave, there are a variety of circumstances and nuanced motivations that lie somewhere in the middle. No matter what the personal or circumstantial drivers and reasons that propel it, migration on an annual basis occurs for millions of people. The term “migration” is itself used to describe varied and complex patterns of human mobility that occur internally within a state or region, as well as those taking place across borders, internationally, and trans-continentally. Migration can be applied to the categories of people moving as a result of their own agency, voluntarily, and as an individual or familial choice. It can also be used to describe the categories of those having to move by force or under duress, and this includes the mobility experiences of forced migrants, internally displaced persons, refugees, and asylum-seekers.

Author(s):  
Michael J. Toole

This chapter addresses the social injustice experienced by refugees and internally displaced persons. There are approximately 25.4 million refugees and approximately 40.0 million internally displaced persons globally, in addition to 3.1 million asylum seekers. This chapter describes morbidity and mortality in these populations and the increased risk factors that refugees and internally displaced persons face. It provides many specific examples of the effects of social injustice in these populations. The chapter describes international responses to the needs of these populations. It includes a discussion of what needs to be done. The author concludes that the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons can be addressed only if the international community is serious about addressing the root causes of poverty, poor governments, exploitation, and inequities between rich and poor countries.


Refuge ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Crisp

 This article examines the way in which UNHCR has expanded its range of policy interests and operational activities since its establishment in 1951, focusing on the extension of the organization’s mission from refugees to groups such as asylum seekers, returnees, stateless popula­tions, internally displaced persons, and victims of natural disasters.The article identifies the different factors that have contributed to this expansionist process, examines its implications for UNHCR’s core mandate, and asks whether the process is an irreversible one.


Author(s):  
Bradley Megan

This chapter explores restitution and other remedies for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Most refugees and IDPs never receive any formal redress for the wrongs they have suffered. Yet over the past 30 years, significant progress has been made in advancing international norms on remedies for refugees and IDPs, and experiences in countries from Bosnia and Kosovo to Rwanda and Iraq have strengthened understanding of the challenges involved in translating these principles into practice. Efforts have focused predominantly on the restitution of housing, land, and property (HLP), with the assumption that this is the most pertinent remedy for forced migrants, particularly because it may help enable return as the ‘preferred’ solution to displacement. The chapter assesses these developments and the state of research on this pivotal challenge. It reviews the approaches taken in major peace treaties, court decisions, and standards. The chapter then reflects on five intertwined challenges: (i) developing appropriate data collection techniques and evidentiary standards; (ii) balancing the rights of ‘secondary occupants’ and people in protracted displacement; (iii) mitigating risks associated with HLP restitution; (iv) developing a better understanding of how gender, race, class, and other intersecting power relations influence redress; and (v) moving beyond a narrow focus on property restitution to consider the wider range of losses associated with displacement.


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-440

Forced migration has come to be the defining feature of the contemporary Middle East, a region that is both the source of and host to some of the largest forcibly displaced populations in the world. In 2015, 65 percent of the world's 19.4 million refugees—including the 5.5 million Palestinian refugees—as well as 30 percent of the world's thirty-eight million internally displaced persons were in the Middle East, while one out of every four refugees worldwide was from Syria. Seeking security and stability, millions of people from the region are on the move within and across social spaces that are at once strange and familiar, and in which they themselves are familiar and strange to others. In 2015, Turkey became host to the world's largest refugee population of over two million, while Zaʿatari camp in Jordan has grown rapidly to become one of the world's largest camps since the Syrian civil war began. With 7.6 million people—or 35 percent of the population—internally displaced, Syria now has the highest number of internally displaced persons in the world. Iraq has produced multiple overlapping displacements, resulting in one of the largest refugee resettlement programs of the past decade. Thousands of Syrians, Libyans, and Iraqis have undertaken perilous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to seek asylum in Europe and elsewhere. Palestinian refugees are now in a fourth generation of exile, making their plight the longest running unresolved refugee situation in the world.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Rohwerder

Covid-19 and the response and mitigation efforts taken to contain the virus have triggered a global crisis impacting on all aspects of life. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for forcibly displaced persons (refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers) extends beyond its health impacts and includes serious socioeconomic and protection impacts. This rapid review focuses on the available evidence of the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis on forcibly displaced persons, with a focus where possible and relevant on examples from countries of interest to the Covid Collective programme: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.


Author(s):  
Bielefeldt Heiner, Prof ◽  
Ghanea Nazila, Dr ◽  
Wiener Michael, Dr

Though it is clear that refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) have an equal right to freedom of religion or belief, this right is often compromised in practice. This chapter examines a number of these challenges for freedom of religion or belief at various stages of the process by which persons become forcibly displaced, seek asylum and refugee status in another State, are able to or are denied the freedom to practise religion or belief in refugee camps, or face refoulement.


Author(s):  
Nina A. Krakhmalova

The paper seeks to provide insights to the nature and problematic issues as well as to specify the institutes for adaptation and integration of internally displaced persons in modern Ukraine. Yet, a vast range of problems faced by IDPS in the process of their adaptation remains unresolved so far. Among the major challenges of IDP social integration are as follows: housing and employment problems, financial hardship, dissolution of family ties, the problem of adaptation, etc. The situation and problems of internally displaced persons have been analyzed along with providing a socio-demographic portrait of IDP in Ukraine, the key challenges for IDPS have been revealed. According to the survey, forced migrants maintain close relationships with charity organizations and government social services (respectively 69% and 44% of respondents, respectively). The problem of employment is the survival issue for IDPS in modern realia, since the government support fails to cover even the accommodation costs. Housing rent and utilities expenditures account for almost the entire income of IDPS. Apart from financial problems, a great number of IDPS worry about the ongoing war in Ukraine and strive for peace (84% of respondents) as well as the failure to be with their families (42% of respondents), which are important for the process of adaptation. The research findings offer the following recommendations to be undertaken: the government support must primarily be targeted to resolve the major problems that IDPS cannot overcome on their own, i. e. finding a place to live and employment. It is critical to create favourable environment and incentives for those employers who employ migrants. This will raise the level of IDPs competitiveness in the labour market, thus making their adaptation much easier. Since people have undergone through extremely traumatic experiences due to military actions and the process of resettlement, forced migrants need psychological assistance. Local communities should engage IDPS into social events to foster their integration. In conclusion, it is argued that internally displaced persons are a potential that will allow Ukraine to flourish, live in peace and consent in a single territory, for the sake of a bright future of the nation. The strategies and mechanisms for internally displaced persons adaptation and integration into the new social and cultural environment have been explored; the role of the government, volunteers and international organizations in promoting the adaptation and integration of internally displaced persons has been specified.


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