ABSTRACT
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have witnessed a remarkable growth in the extent and in the diversity of international migration. More people are on the move from a wider diversity of countries. The pattern of migration has changed from large-scale migration from one country to a particular destination-for example, the large-scale movement of populations in the mid-twentieth century from former colonies of European powers such as India and Algeria to the UK and France-to more diverse forms of migration not explicable in terms of colonial histories. Part of this phenomenon is, of course, the result of a more globalized economy or what Castells (2000) terms the “network society,” linking the production of goods and services to an ever-expanding interdependent global economy. While migration in general has increased and diversified, forced migration in particular has
undergone a comparable range of transformations. The diversification of forced migration is due in no small part to the changing nature of war in which large-scale conflicts involving battle between soldiers of opposing armies has given way to a plethora of “low-intensity conflicts.” These mirror shifting power dynamics in the post Cold War age. Conflicts between a number of “great powers” and their allies jostling for strategic and material advantage has in many instances given way to a more fractured form of conflict between the USA and its European and Australasian allies, and disparate but networked groups that resort strategically to civilian targets such as subways, trains, buses, and aircraft as evident, for example from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and the 2007 subway bombings in London. Arguably the diversity of forced migrants in recent times reflects this changing pattern of
conflict. According to 2010 figures provided by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 43.3 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2009, the highest figure since the mid-1990s. This figure includes a significant number of internally displaced persons with the number of people uprooted in their own countries growing by 4 percent to 27.1 million (UNHCR 2010). It is also exacerbated by a very low proportion of those crossing international borders feeling able to return to their own countries owing to ongoing violence
and upheaval. The origin of refugees reflects the changing face of global conflict with over half coming from Afghanistan and Iraq alone. The broad impacts of displacement are also illustrated in the multiple destinations of refugees showing, for example, that the 2.9 million Afghani refugees are present in no less than 71 countries. Evidence that all parts of civilian society experience the impact of armed conflicts is provided by breakdown of the refugee population by age and gender: 47 percent of refugees and asylum seekers were women and girls and 41 percent children under the age of 18 (UNHCR 2010). Current trends point to the fact that forced migration is a growing phenomenon in the
modern age. It is increasing in terms of the sheer numbers of persons involved, in the types of forced migration that is taking place, and in the diversity of migrants’ nationalities, ethnicities, and religions as well as their gender and age. Despite its numerical growth and increasing global impact, theoretical reflection on the phenomenon of forced migration is often embedded in orientations more broadly applicable to migration in general. I will examine the usefulness of these theories before considering further the particularities of forced migration and the theoretical approaches that may be most illuminating.
