Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
When the need for labor declines, destination
governments can squeeze out guest workers. Nigeria,
as noted earlier, did exactly that in the early 1980s
when the government sent foreign workers from other
areas of West Africa home, often by force. Similarly,
the government of the home country can pull out its
guest workers, bringing them home when conditions in
the destination region become perilous. For example,
over 30,000 Indonesians were working in the Middle
East before the 2003 Iraq War; the Indonesian govern-
ment decided to pull its workers home just before the
war began.
Guest workers are legal, documented migrants
who have work visas, usually short term. Often the des-
tination governments extend the visas if certain sec-
tors of the economy still need laborers. Whether short
or long term, the international fl ow of guest workers
changes the ethnic, linguistic, and religious mosaic of
the places where they go. In Europe, for example, guest
workers from Turkey, North Africa, South Asia, and
other former colonial holdings have altered the cul-
tural landscape of the region. New temples, mosques,
restaurants, grocery stores, shops, and service industries
geared toward migrants have taken root in Europe's cul-
tural landscape.
In 1970, the United Nations reported 2.9 million
persons were refugees; the majority were Palestinian
Arabs dislocated by the creation of the state of Israel and
the armed confl icts that followed. In 1980, the global ref-
ugee total had nearly tripled, to over 8 million. By 2010,
the UNHCR reported 15.2 million refugees (not count-
ing Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Syria), fl eeing from
their homes and across country borders.
The United Nations agency that monitors the refu-
gee problem is the key organization supporting refugees.
It organizes and funds international relief efforts and
negotiates with governments and regimes on behalf of the
refugees. But UNHCR is not alone in tracking this global
problem; other offi ces often contradict UNHCR's data,
arguing that the situation is even worse than the United
Nations suggests.
The 1951 Refugee Convention defi nes a refugee
as “a person who has a wellfounded fear of being perse-
cuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, member-
ship of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Countries interpret this defi nition in different ways,
especially since the phrase “wellfounded” leaves much
room for judgment.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the UN defi ni-
tion has to do with internally displaced persons (called
IDPs, sometimes called internal refugees). Internally
displaced persons are people who have been displaced
within their own countries, such as the victims of
Hurricane Katrina, but they do not cross international
borders as they fl ee. IDPs tend to remain undercounted,
if not almost invisible. In 2010, UNHCR estimated that
27 million people (in addition to the 15.2 million inter-
national refugees) are IDPs—forced to abandon their
homes. The United Nations and international law dis-
tinguish between refugees , who have crossed one or more
international borders during their move and encamped
in a country other than their own, and internally displaced
persons (IDPs), who abandon their homes but remain in
their own countries.
Because the status of a refugee is internationally
defi ned and recognized and comes with legal rights, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and
states in the world must distinguish between refugees and
migrants who may be just as poor or desperate but who do
not qualify for refugee status. When a refugee meets the
offi cial criteria, he or she becomes eligible for assistance,
including possible asylum , which is the right to protec-
tion in the fi rst country in which the refugee arrives.
Other migrants do not have the right to asylum. Refugee
status can extend over decades and become the very basis
for a way of life, as has happened in the Middle East. In
Jordan, Palestinian refugees have become so integrated
into the host country's national life that they are regarded
as permanent refugees, but in Lebanon other Palestinians
Refugees
You may have seen a story on the televised news show-
ing thousands upon thousands of poor people fl eeing a
crisis in their home region or country by walking. They
put their few earthly possessions and their babies on
their backs and walk. They walk to another town. They
walk beyond their country's border. They walk to a ref-
ugee camp without adequate food, water, or amenities.
International agencies attempt desperate relief efforts
while disease spreads, dooming infants and children and
emaciating adults. As they walk, they remember all they
are leaving behind: the only life they have known. But in
the midst of war and persecution, it is too hard to hold
onto this life. So, they walk.
The vast majority of refugees do not make it far
from home. The United Nations High Commissioner on
Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 83 percent of refugees
fl ee to a country in the same region as their home coun-
try. The world's refugee population has grown steadily
since the 1951 establishment of the Refugee Convention,
which established an international law specifying who is a
refugee and what legal rights they have. The main goal of
the 1951 Refugee Convention was to help European refu-
gees following the end of World War II. The UNHCR
helped to repatriate (return to their homeland) most of
the refugees from World War II.
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