Who are refugees?

In today's world there are nearly 18 million refugees. They are ordinary people who have fled from their own countries because of war, or because their political belief, religion, their ethnic group or way of life puts them in danger of arrest, torture or death. Another 25 million people have fled from their homes because their lives are in danger, but they have gone into hiding in their home country. This group of people are called displaced people. They have fled from their homes for the same reasons as refugees. One person out of every 150 people alive today is a refugee or displaced person. There are refugees living in every country in the world. Today most refugees and displaced people live in the poorer countries of Africa or Asia.

Everyday people run away from their homes because war puts them in danger. In some countries, a person's political beliefs put them in danger. People may not be allowed to criticise their government, if they do so they could be arrested or killed. In some countries a person's religion or ethnic group may put them in danger. An ethnic group is a group of people who share the same culture and language. Sometimes a person's way of life puts them in danger, for example laws have been passed to make a person wear a certain type of clothes. Those that do not obey this law may be sent to prison.

The strict definition of a refugee was invented after the Second World War, when there were many refugees and displaced people all over Europe - around 1.5 million. Today the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides assistance to around 27.4 million people, of who 14.5 million are refugees, a half of them are children and young people.

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Anyone who is given refugee status is glad that they do not have to return to a country where they could face danger. That does not mean they have no troubles. They might have to live for a time in a refugee camp. Camps can be overcrowded; unsanitary places where food and clean water is short and there are many problems.

They might be learning a new language just to understand what is going on. They will be missing their home, their friends, their music, stories and books, the place they grew up and its familiar surroundings. They might also be learning to live with the events that led them to be a refugee. For the seven million refugees who are children and young people this can be dreadful. They might have seen their village attacked and looted. Their parents might have been killed. They might have witnessed or know of murders, rapes or torture. They may have been in prison. Some refugees have nightmares and need time to get used to their past.

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Citizenship themes

We all value our communities. They give us a sense of belonging and identity. They shape who we are and how we live our lives. For those of us fortunate enough to have led relatively stable lives, amongst the same community throughout our lives, it is hard to imagine existing apart from it. Where would we be without our friends, our colleagues or schoolmates, our neighbours? What would we do without familiar streets, landscapes, books, television, customs and activities?

Being a member of a community does not require being born into that community. Many of us have moved or changed schools or jobs and understand the difficulties that can be involved in such changes. Even in the face of such transitions, not everything changes. We keep the same family and possessions, and the new people we meet speak the same language and often share our interests or background. All of this helps to make the transition to a new school, or job, or neighbourhood tolerable. Partly because of this, we quickly make new friends and life goes back to normal.

But what would it be like if almost every aspect of our lives were to alter drastically and all at once? What if we were separated from not just our neighbourhood but our country, friends, family, home and possessions? What if we were thrust into a different community, where people had different backgrounds and customs to us and spoke a different language that we could not or only partly understand? It is hard to grasp the severity of the plight of the refugee, the extremity of their difficulties and vulnerability. They have lost membership in their previous community and everything that entailed, while at the same time they could be excluded from their new community.

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What is a refugee?

A refugee is someone who has fled across a national border from their home country, or is unable to return to it, because of a well founded fear that they will be persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion. Refugees who cross borders because of famine are not necessarily covered by international protection, unlike a refugee fleeing from war etc.

What is an asylum seeker?

An asylum seeker is a refugee seeking protection.

What is a displaced person?

A displaced person is someone who has been forced to move to another part of their own country because of war, famine or disaster.

What is an economic migrant?

An economic migrant is someone who moves from their own country to another, hoping to find work or prospects of a better education, or simply to improve their standard of living. These people are not refugees according to international law, but are economic migrants.

Quotes

"There is no sorrow above the loss of a native land."
Euripides

"A bundle of meagre belongings is not necessarily the only thing a refugee brings, to his or her new country."
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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