Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Crowds of people on the move with their bundles of possessions, young men frantically scaling fences, boatloads of women and children pummelled by the waves, bodies washed up the beach, camps with endless rows of tents and chaotic shanty towns stretching as far as the eye can see, transit centres where hopes fade, humiliated workers forced to do jobs nobody else wants, mothers waiting a lifetime in vain for news of daughters or sons who left to seek their fortune elsewhere.These are some of the images that might come to mind when picturing the plight of uprooted people around the world.Several months ago, the attention of Europe and the world was focused on the crisis that began to unfold in 2015 as millions of Africans, Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis attempted to cross the Mediterranean, fleeing conflict and poverty.The crisis continues but the media spotlight has shifted to the ordeal suffered by people displaced from the cities of Iraq and Syria and to US migration policy, in particular the plans to build a wall on the border with Mexico.As we write, the headlines are dominated by the situation in Myanmar and its neighbouring countries as an entire people flees.On the other hand, there are other places in Africa, Central and South America, where such crises do not make headlines.The never-ending string of such dramas and the masses of people uprooted from their homes on a scale not witnessed since the Second World War have prompted the Review to devote another issue to the topic of displacement and migration.1 The brunt of the "migration crises" is borne not by countries in Europe and North America, as many journalists and politicians are wont to suggest, but by host countries in the South and, most importantly, by the families, single adults and children lost in the multitude who have set out on a journey into the unknown, leaving everything behind.These crises are just the tip of the iceberg, the predictable consequences of an endless succession of conflicts and disasters and persistent underdevelopment.While migrants arriving on the doorsteps of destination countries are undoubtedly the most visible manifestation, there are millions more people displaced within their own countries facing the same difficulties.Why do these people leave their homes, exposing themselves to so many risks?What can be done to help them resume normal life?
Author: Vincent Bernard
Language: English
Topic: Migration and Exile Studies
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2803298172