Thesis 100dpi

FORCED TO FLEE, BUT
WHERE TO GO?
In today’s world there are worrying misconceptions about refugee
movements. As seen through the statistical analysis over 80 percent of
displaced people globally are hosted within developing countries. The
current fear portrayed by the media regarding the ‘floods’ of refugees
towards industrialized countries in Europe are superficially inflated
when looked at in contrast to the number of people internally displaced
within war torn countries, or the number of displaced people
seeking asylum within developing countries. It is these poorer countries
that have been left to deal with an issue that they are far from
capable of coping with. This is seen in stark contrast when comparing
Pakistan, who host one of the worlds largest refugee populations
compared to that of Germany, the industrialized country with the
largest refugee population. Pakistan has an economic impact with
710 refugees for each US dollar of its per capita GDP due to this influx
while Germany sees an impact only of 17 refugees for each dollar of
per capita GDP.
28 REFUGIUM
“The world is failing these people,
leaving them to wait out the instability
back home and put their lives on hold
indefinitely.”
António Guterres, 2011
asylum seeker
-a person who has left their home country as a
political refugee and is seeking asylum in another.
border
/ˈbɔːdə/ -a line separating two countries, administrative
divisions, or other areas.
chaos
/ˈkeɪɒs/ -complete disorder and confusion.
convention refugee
-a person who meets the refugee definition in the
1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees.
This sentiment can be seen in the two maps on the right. A strong
trend is quickly evident where there is an immediate correlation
between the patterns shown between ‘Countries of Asylum’ and the
‘Countries of Departure’. Although Europe or North America can be
seen as evident countries of asylum, the weighted volume of asylum
countries are, as seen more often than not, those surrounding the
country of departure itself. The movement through the country of departure
to one of asylum is on of the most difficult in terms of mobility
of a refugee. This has lead to the large volume of internally displaced
people within who often find themselves still trapped within the confines
of the very crisis that they are trying to escape.
There is now a global imperative to create an equitable solution to
the problem of mobility and hosting refugees. If left as is, forcibly
displaced people will face further hardship and marginalization without
support. A global system of parity is required so they can work,
send their children to school, and have access to basic services. The
situation as is can only perpetuate and fester as tensions rise between
indigenous populations of developing countries and refugees all competing
for and relying on the same limited services on offer.