by Sharon Norris
A report published this week by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) states that while global migration has increased, the number of refugees worldwide (9.2 million) is lower than at any time in the last 25 years. Nevertheless, the report, The State of the World's Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium, says that the international system for dealing with displaced people has reached crisis point. Furthermore, it says there is confusion over the terms, 'migrant', 'refugee', and 'asylum seeker'.
A 'migrant' can be anyone who moves country, for whatever reason, while a refugee is someone whose claim for political asylum has been assessed and upheld. An asylum seeker is someone whose claim for asylum has yet to be decided on.
The report says that new trends have emerged. As a result of fewer conflicts between countries, the number of people moving from one country to another has dropped. However, an increase in the number of civil wars has led to a higher percentage of the world's displaced population migrating within their own countries.
Nevertheless, according to Dr Nicholas Van Hear, a senior researcher at the ESRC's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) in Oxford, the apparent decrease in the number of refugees noted in the UNHCR report is slightly misleading. He says:
"It is true that the number of conflicts between nations has declined, and that this has had an impact, but the growing numbers of refugees contained within their own countries has also been influenced by the introduction of tighter restrictions, both in the country of departure and the destination country".
However, Dr Van Hear also says that the apparent decline in the number of refugees can also be partly attributed to the fact that, while many people do make it to other countries, they often decide not to claim asylum for fear that, having alerted the authorities to their presence, they will be deported should their claim be disallowed.
...the international community has failed to acknowledge the full range of challenges - and opportunities - presented by migration...
Of course, there are many other reasons why individuals choose to move countries, including economic ones, as a new ESRC fact sheet on migration shows. Official figures due out early next month are expected to show that the number of people living in the UK from the new EU member states has now risen beyond 400,000. This is more than 15 times the Government's original estimate.
There may be further cause for concern in the report's findings that the current provision for refugees is inadequate. Many scientists predict that, in future, the effects of global climate change will result in increased global migration due to certain areas of the world, including parts of Africa and low lying countries in the Far East, becoming uninhabitable.
A Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) (PDF, 128KB) was launched by the UN in 2003 and reported its findings in October last year (2005). Overall it concluded that the international community has failed to acknowledge the full range of challenges - and opportunities - presented by migration, and it stressed the need for greater global co-operation on international migration.