According to the UN, in 2015 there were about 244 million people in the world living outside the country of their birth. Over 80 per cent of migrants remain within their own geographical region, in some neighbouring country. A minority of migrants are forced to leave their homeland. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (also known as the UN Refugees Agency) states that in 2016 there were about 65,6-million people in the world who had been forced to flee their homes. The majority of them were refugees inside their own homelands, and about a third of them were international refugees. Refugees usually remain in neighbouring countries. Nearly 90 per cent of refugees live in countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Refugees do not flee from poverty
There is a common misconception is that asylum seekers and refugees are poor.
Refugees are people who have had to leave their homeland because they have grounds to fear they will face persecution. Refugees are persecuted on the basis of their origin, nationality, faith, social group, or political belief.
A refugee could be – say – a middle-class journalist whose work is not liked by his or her government or terrorists. Wealth does not diminish his or her feelings of dread.
Enshrined in international agreements
The definition and legal status of refugees were agreed on in the Geneva Refugee Convention and its Second Protocol. The reception and treatment of refugees is also enshrined in international human rights conventions.
The question sometimes posed in the media of whether refugees should be helped is therefore misleading – at least if the journalists responsible do not provide the background of the international obligations to which Finland is committed.
Tips for a journalist
- Migrants are people who live outside the country of their birth.
- Asylum seekers are people who seek refuge from another country. The right to this is a human right. Only a small proportion of asylum seekers are granted refugee status.
- Refugee status is granted to people who are regarded as having grounds to fear persecution on account of their origin, nationality, faith, social group, or political belief.
- Quota refugee status can be granted to people who are in the greatest need of protection. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) typically identifies them from refugee camps and seeks asylum for them from third countries.
- Paperless people reside in a country without a permit, such as following negative asylum decisions or when their visas expire. You should avoid the term “illegal immigrant”, as there are no circumstances in which a person is “illegal”.
- Key sources UN Population Division. www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. www.unhcr.org Migration Policy Institute, MPI. www.migrationpolicy.org Center for Global Development. www.cgdev.org/topics/migration
Sources
Migration Policy Institute, MPI.
Center for Global Development.