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What is a refugee?
Refugees are people who have fled from their native country and crossed a
border to another country. “Refugee” is a legal term defined by the United
Nations (in the 1951 Geneva Convention) and by the US government. A refugee
is someone who is “unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of
origin because of past persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution,
based on the person’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group, or political opinion.”
Mass
movements of people across borders are often divided into “economic
migrants” and “political refugees.” Economic migrants are seen as having
left their homes voluntarily to earn a better wage, while refugees are seen
as having been forced to leave for their own safety. The legal category of
“refugees is quite narrow. Those who leave their homes “only” because of
extreme poverty, famine, or environmental factors such as drought do not
qualify as refugees.
People who escape violence in their home countries by fleeing to another
part of the same country also do not qualify as refugees. Only those who
cross an international border and have “a well-founded fear of persecution”
are considered to be refugees. (Top of Page)
Who decides who is a refugee?
People flee conditions in their home countries and find
temporary asylum in refugee camps or communities in neighboring countries.
There, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) interviews them to
decide whether they should be granted refugee status and thus qualify for
UNHCR protection.
(Top of Page)
Why do refugees leave their homes?
There are multiple factors that push people across borders. The major
factors are armed conflict and the violation of human rights. Historically,
refugees have been a by-product or side-effect of war, and the
warring parties did not have the displacement of civilians as a major
tactic. Increasingly, however, forcing people to leave their homes has
become a direct aim in war. Where claims to political power have been
framed in terms of ethnic, racial, or religious identity, a group mobilizes
itself on the basis of that identity, and then tries to assert its right to
power by excluding “others” from the territory. Extreme examples of this
so-called “ethnic cleansing” have been seen in the direct violence that took
place in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia, and in the “scorched earth”
policy that forces people to leave their land in search of food, as happened
in Angola.
(Top of Page)
What is the difference between a refugee and an asylee?
A
refugee applies for admission from a “country of first asylum” outside the
United States. An asylee (asylum seeker) applies to stay in the US after
they have arrived here. Some asylum seekers come to the US on tourist visas
or student visas. Others arrive as undocumented immigrants. However, in
order to receive permission from our government to remain in the US, asylees
must meet the same criteria as refugees – they must be unable to return to a
country of origin due to “past persecution or a well-founded fear of
persecution…”
(Top of Page)
How many refugees are there in the world?
At
the start of 2006, 8.4 million people were classified as refugees by the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the multilateral body charged with
their protection. This was the lowest level since 1980, following a peak of
18.2 million refugees in 1993 after the end of the Cold War.
Some
refugees live in unsettled conditions in refugee camps, where they may
remain for months, years, and even generations. Many refugees have
experienced violence, or spent long periods with inadequate food, water,
shelter, and sanitation. Other refugees have resettled in countries that
will not permit them to become citizens, or to rebuild their lives with a
guarantee that they can remain. Only a small number of refugees are granted
legal admission into a country of refuge such as the United States. These
lucky refugees have the opportunity to gradually rebuild their lives in
their new country.
(Top of Page)
Where do the refugees come from?
Refugees are from all parts of the world, and all backgrounds. In the past
30 years, LSG has resettled refugees from Europe, Africa, Asia, Central
America, and South America. We have also assisted asylees from the Caribbean
and elsewhere.
(Top of Page)
Which countries resettle refugees?
Along with the United
States, Argentina, Australia, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile,
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Spain and Sweden have resettlement programs in place to assist
refugees. Other countries, such as Germany, welcome large numbers of
refugees on a temporary basis, but do not allow them to resettle permanently
with the expectation of ultimately becoming citizens.
(Top of Page)
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