Forced Migration - Causes

Causes

Causes for forced migration can include:

• Natural disaster or manmade disaster: 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. Hurricane Katrina resulted in displacement of almost the entire population of New Orleans, leaving the community and government with several economic and social challenges. The term environmental refugee 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. An elaboration of such refugees is given by Essam El-Hinnawi. The first category is where people return to their original habitat once the disruption is over, as in the case of the Bhopal disaster. The second classification is where people are permanently displaced. The third type of migrant includes those who seek better living conditions due to deterioration of environmental conditions in their present habitat, such as soil fertility.
• Human trafficking: Migrants displaced through deception or coercion with purpose of their exploitation fall under this category. The data on such forced migration are limited since the activities involved are clandestine in nature. While migration of this nature is well covered for male migrants (working in agriculture, construction etc.), same cannot be said for their female counterparts as the market situation for them might be unscrupulous (sex work or domestic service). The International Labor Organization considers trafficking an offence against labor protection and denies them the opportunity of utilizing their resources for their country. ILO’s Multilateral Framework includes principle no. 11 that recommends, "Governments should formulate and implement, in consultation with the social partners, measures to prevent abusive practices, migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons; they should also work towards preventing irregular labor migration."
• War and civil war
• Fleeing persecution (for political, social, ethnic, religious reasons)
• Slavery
• Development projects (such as the Three Gorges Dam in China)