Human displacement refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region. It often connotes violent coercion, and is used interchangeably with the term forced migration. In the strictest sense human displacement can be considered to be involuntary only when a person is physically transported from a country and has no opportunity to escape from those transporting him. When faced with an immediate threat to life, there is no voluntary element on migration.
A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration. The term was first widely used during World War II and the resulting refugee outflows from Eastern Europe, when it was used to specifically refer to one removed from his or her native country as a refugee, prisoner or a slave laborer. The meaning has significantly broadened in the past half-century. A displaced person may also be referred to as a forced migrant. A person displaced but still within the country’s border is referred to as an internally displaced person.
If the displaced person has crossed an international border and falls under one of the relevant international legal instruments, they are considered a refugee. A forced migrant who left his or her home because of political persecution or violence, but did not cross an international border, is commonly considered to be the less well-defined category of internally displaced person and is subject to more tenuous international protection. The forced displacement of a number of refugees or internally displaced persons according to an identifiable policy is an example of population transfer. A displaced person who crosses an international border without permission from the country they are entering is an illegal immigrant.
A migrant who fled because of economic hardship is an economic migrant. A special sub-set of this is development-induced displacement, in which the forced migrant was forced out their home because of economically driven projects like that of the Three Gorges Dam in China and various Indian dams. The internally displaced person generally refers to one who is forced to migrate for reasons other than economic conditions, such as war or persecution. There is a body of opinion that holds that persons subject to development-induced displacement should have greater legal protection than that granted economic migrants.
Persons are often displaced due to natural or man-made disasters. Displacement can also occur as a result of slow-onset climate change, such as desertification or sea-level rise. A person who is displaced due to environmental factors which negatively impact his or her livelihood is generally known as an environmental migrant. Such displacement can be cross-border in nature but is frequently internal. No specific international legal instrument applies to such individuals. Foreign nations often offer disaster relief to mitigate the effects of such disaster displacement.
A specific form of human displacement/forced migration is population transfer, which is a coherent policy to move unwanted persons, perhaps as an attempt at ‘ethnic cleansing’. Someone who has experienced forced migration is a ‘forced migrant’ or ‘displaced person’. Less formally, such a person may be referred to as a refugee, although that term has a specific narrower legal definition. The International Organization for Migration defines forced migration as any person who migrates to escape persecution, conflict, repression, natural and human-made disasters, ecological degradation, or other situations that endanger their lives, freedom or livelihood.
Never before in history have there been so many people living far away from their native homes. Since man has been on earth, people have again and again travelled to other regions in the world hoping to find a better basis for existence there. In recent centuries, wars have repeatedly triggered mass displacements of people. In recent decades global migration has reached an unknown level. Surveys conducted by international organizations have concluded that currently over 175 million people are living far away from their native countries. 19 million people are considered to be refugees or displaced persons. There are various factors responsible for human displacement, these include;
Poor living conditions; Many people are forced to leave their homes because there are not enough fertile pastures and arable land, food, water, work or other fundamental requirements. The consequences of environmental catastrophes, such as drought or floods, can also force thousands to leave their native homes. Today roughly two thirds of the world’s population live in economically poor countries. The growing gap between rich and poor is one of the most significant driving force for human displacement.
The population grows while economic development stagnates; The enormous rate of population growth and the poor perspectives for economic development in some regions give rise to a tremendous migratory pressure. Third World countries lack capital and know-how. In some countries, debts absorb a major part of the economic power. Falling prices of raw material as well as the customs barriers and import restrictions imposed by the industrialized countries prevent the development of viable export industries. Unstable economic policy, a lack of legal stability and widespread corruption discourage investors and concerns from locating their long-term industrial projects in such countries.
Natural or manmade disasters; Occurrence of a disaster leads to temporary or permanent displacement of population from that area. In such a scenario, migration becomes more of a survival strategy. The concept of forced migration envelopes demographic movements like flight, evacuation, displacement, and resettlement. The term environmental displacement has been in use recently representing people who are forced to leave their traditional habitat because of environmental disruption i.e. biological, physical or chemical change in ecosystem.
The political causes of human displacement are numerous. Conflict-induced human displacement can be divided into root causes and proximate causes. Root causes are those which initiate a conflict and its displacement, although these can be hard to isolate as most of today’s conflicts must be understood as self-perpetuating and their resulting displacement can be seen not only as an effect of the conflict but also eventually as a cause of its continuation.
Most conflicts causing human displacement are a combination of internal fighting and direct foreign military intervention, most often linked to civil war. The causes are fuelled by deep political problems, often rooted in acute racial, ethnic, religious and/or cultural cleavages as well as gross inequities within a country. During the Cold War, these differences, tensions, oppressions and repressions were often supported by the control mechanisms behind the two superpowers. The end of the Cold War removed these external interests and resulted in the intensification of many internal conflicts and related human displacement.
Massive displacement of people within countries and across borders has become a defining feature of the post-cold war world. It is also a major feature of human insecurity in which genocide, terrorism and egregious human rights violations wreak havoc on civilians. The underlying causes of mass displacement are conflicts over power, wealth and resource sharing. Opportunities therefore exist for both national and international authorities to address the deeper structural divisions in societies when trying to end conflict and displacement through peace processes.
The need of internally displaced persons for international protection was one of the factors that prompted a shift in global policy and thinking on state responsibility. Over the past two decades, a state-centred system in which sovereignty was absolute has evolved into one in which the behaviour of states towards their citizens has become a matter of international concern and scrutiny. The human rights movement has long championed the view that the rights of people transcend frontiers and that the international community must hold a government to account when it fails to meet its obligations. The deployment of more humanitarian and peacekeeping operations to protect civilians reflects this new reality as do preventive and peacebuilding efforts.
Nonetheless, concepts of sovereignty as responsibility and the responsibility to protect remain far ahead of international willingness and capacity to enforce them. The failure of states to protect their citizens has often met with a weak international response. It is critical that the United Nations, concerned governments, regional bodies and civil society assist states in developing their own capacities and press for the development of the tools needed to enable the international community to take assertive action when persuasive measures fail and masses of people remain under the threat of violence and humanitarian tragedy.
Recent peace agreements have made some provisions for the return, resettlement and reintegration of those uprooted. Involving IDPs and returning refugees in discussions can avert violence, prevent continued exploitation and abuse, create greater trust and promote the recovery of local economies. Governments must assume their responsibility towards IDPs, and the UN Peacebuilding Commission should work more actively with them to ensure secure and sustainable returns, eliminate the marginalization of different groups and address the root causes of disputes by redressing past injustices.
In conclusion, it’s widely known that human displacement and migration is now more common than it was in the past centuries. People are displaced because of various factors, including environmental catastrophes and economic factors, and other manmade factors. However, it should be pointed out that of all the causes of human displacement, politics plays a leading role. Be it displacement because of armed conflict, war, human rights abuses or persecution, it all stems out of the political decisions or the actions/behaviors of the politicians that push people to the brink of displacement, whether within the country or out of it.
References;
Mark Wyman: Dps: Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Cornell University Press 1998 (reprint).
- J. Jaffe: Notes on the Population Theory of Eugene M. Kulischer. In: The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 2. (April 1962). Pp. 187-206.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Environmental refugees: myth or reality?, Richard Black”. UNHCR. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
Hilton, Ella E. “Displaced Person: A Girl’s Life in Russia, Germany, and America”.Baton Rouge LA. :Louisiana State University Press