5 According to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, almost 60 million people had been forcibly displaced globally by the end of the year 2014. Root causes of migraon and flight range from wars over destabilized regions to econom- ic, polical and social asymmetries. They make people search for a per- specve for survival and for secure living condions. The total number of displaced persons is made up of inter- nally displaced persons (38.2 million), refugees (19.5 million), as well as asy- lum seekers (1.8 million). Although the large majority (86 percent) seek refuge in neighboring countries, many individuals and families take high risks to find secure desnaons in far-away countries. The pathways to security and beer living condions force thousands of people to travel either in ramshackle boats across the Medi- terranean Sea, as human cargo in overcrowded and sfling trucks or as stowaways on train routes such as the notorious “La Besa”, carrying Central Americans from southern to northern Mexico. In recent years the industri- alized countries of Europe and North America have pursued polics of compartmentalizaon (e.g. the Dub- lin Regulaons spulang that asylum seekers can only apply for asylum in the first EU member state they en- ter) and of installing restricted border regimes, resulng in a lethal refugee smuggling business. Recently, these policies have been partly revised but no coherent framework has been es- tablished so far. The countries of the Global North must therefore engage in creang legal refuge and secure es- cape routes in order to avoid becom- ing complicit in the present refugee crisis. The reasons why people are forced to migrate are mulple and relate to a complex system of interconnected economic, instuonal, environ- mental, social, cultural and polical processes and causalies. Since ZEF started its research acvies in 1997, it has been studying the causes of mi- graon and displacement, and iden- fying policy opons for changing the situaon in different contexts. ZEF re- searchers have been conducng not- ed theorecal analyses on migraon and relave deprivaon in countries of the Global South to find evidence- based soluons for issues such as the role of food and health insecurity, and of environmental stress, such as wa- ter polluon and climate change in the context of migraon. According to the Internaonal Asso- ciaon for the Study of Forced Migra- on, environmental degradaon and climate change are important causes of migraon. People leave their homes temporarily or permanently to escape from environmental disrup- on, oſten caused by climate change, land use changes, polluon, and over-exploitaon of natural resources that can trigger natural disasters like floods, droughts, hurricanes, etc. Ref- ugees and internally displaced people who flee for environmental reasons are oſten and wrongly idenfied as economic refugees – an argument used in the desnaon countries to de-legimize their reasons for fleeing. In addion, people moving due to cli- mate change and hunger do not fall under the 1951 Refugee Convenon. However, they should be protected in the same way as marginalized groups belonging to a certain race, re- ligion, naonality, or social or polical group. This point was also highlighted in the context of the recently ra- fied Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where a target under goal 10 (reduce inequality) states: “Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migraon and mobility of people, in- cluding through the implementaon of planned and well-managed migra- on policies”. Moreover, the world community is called upon to take ur- gent acon to combat climate change (SDG 13) and to protect the environ- ment (SDG 15). Idenfying the causes of forced mi- graon requires in-depth analyses, somemes covering long periods of me. In Lan America, for exam- ple, the taxaon of agriculture, the privazaon of communal lands and forests in addion to the failure of naonal governments to provide ad- equate public services undermined rural livelihoods in the 1970s and 1980s – with connuing effects, even aſter these policies changed in the 1990s. This led to rapid urbanizaon, high unemployment rates in urban and rural areas as well as the growth of the informal sector. Colonial trajec- 2 ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF FORCED MIGRATION Lead arcle by Eva Youkhana, Joachim von Braun and Chrisan Borgemeister
ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES OF FORCED MIGRATION
Aug 04, 2023
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