Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines "forced displacement" as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations".
A forcibly displaced person may also be referred to as a "forced migrant", a "displaced person" (DP), or, if displaced within the home country, an "internally displaced person" (IDP). While some displaced persons may be considered refugees, the latter term specifically refers to such displaced persons who are receiving legally defined protection and are recognized as such by their country of residence and/or international organizations.
Forced displacement has gained attention in international discussions and policy making since the European migrant crisis. This has since resulted in a greater consideration of the impacts of forced migration on affected regions outside Europe. Various international, regional, and local organizations are developing and implementing approaches to both prevent and mitigate the impact of forced migration in the home regions as well as the receiving or destination regions.Cone, Jason, And Marc Bosch Bonacasa. 2018. “Invisible War: Central America’s Forgotten Humanitarian Crisis.” Brown Journal of World Affairs 24 (2): 225–39. Additionally, some collaboration efforts are made to gather evidence in order to seek prosecution of those involved in causing events of human-made forced migration. An estimated 100 million people around the world were forcibly displaced by the end of 2022, with the majority coming from the Global South.
Definitions Governments, NGOs, other international organizations and social scientists have defined forced displacement in a variety of ways. They have generally agreed that it is the forced removal or relocation of a person from their environment and associated connections. It can involve different types of movements, such as flight (from fleeing), evacuation, and population transfer.
The International Organization for Migration defines a forced migrant as any person migrating to "escape persecution, conflict, repression, natural and human-made disasters, ecological degradation, or other situations that endanger their lives, freedom or livelihood". According to UNESCO, forced displacement is "the forced movement of people from their locality or environment and occupational activities," with its leading cause being armed conflict. According to researcher Alden Speare, even movement under immediate threat to life contains a voluntary element as long as an option exists going into hiding, or attempting to avoid persecution. According to him "migration can be considered to be involuntary only when a person is physically transported from a country and has no opportunity to escape from those transporting him [or her]." This viewpoint has come under scrutiny when considering direct and indirect factors which may leave migrants with little to no choice in their decisions, such as imminent threats to life and livelihood..
Distinctions between the different concepts
A migrant who fled their home because of economic hardship is an economic migrant, and strictly speaking, not a displaced person. If the displaced person was forced out of their home because of economically driven projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China, the situation is referred to as development-induced displacement. A displaced person who left their home region because of political persecution or violence, but did not cross an international border, commonly falls into the looser category of internally displaced person (IDP), subject to more tenuous international protection. In 1998, the UN Commission on Human Rights published the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, defining internally displaced people as: "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, or natural or human-made disasters and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border." If the displaced person has crossed an international border and falls under one of the relevant international legal instruments, they may be able to apply for asylum and can become a refugee if the application is successful."U.N. Convention relating to status of Refugees". . United Nations High Commission on Human Rights. Although often incorrectly used as a synonym for displaced person, the term refugee refers specifically to a legally recognized status that has access to specific legal protections. Loose application of the term refugee may cause confusion between the general descriptive class of displaced persons and those who can legally be defined as refugees. Some forced migrants may, due to the country of residence's legal system, be unable to apply for asylum in that country. Thus, even though they meet the international law definition of a refugee they are unable to claim asylum and become recognised by their host country as refugees. A displaced person crossing an international border without permission from the country they are entering or without subsequently applying for asylum may be considered an illegal immigrant. Forced migrants are always either IDPs or displaced people, as both of these terms do not require a legal framework and the fact that they left their homes is sufficient. The distinction between the terms displaced person and forced migrant is minor; however, the term displaced person has an important historic context (e.g. World War II).
History of the term displaced person
The term displaced person (DP) was first widely used during World War II, following the subsequent refugee outflows from Eastern Europe.Mark Wyman (1998). DPs: Europe's Displaced Persons, 1945–1951. Cornell University Press (reprint). . Although DP began as a synonym for refugee, the Office of Military Government, United States differentiated the terms. While refugees were almost always a citizen of the country they were in, DPs were always a citizen of a member of the United Nations; enemy aliens were not DPs regardless of location. In this context, DP specifically referred to an individual removed from their native country as a prisoner or a slave laborer. Most war victims, political refugees, and DPs of the immediate post-Second World War period were Ukrainians, Poles, other Slavs, and citizens of the Baltic states (Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians) who refused to return to Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. A. J. Jaffe claimed that the term was originally coined by Eugene M. Kulischer.A. J. Jaffe (April 1962). "Notes on the Population Theory of Eugene M. Kulischer". In: The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 2. pp. 187–206. The meaning has significantly broadened in the past half-century.
Causes and examples Bogumil Terminski distinguishes two general categories of displacement:
Displacement of risk: mostly conflict-induced displacement, deportations and disaster-induced displacement. Displacement of adaptation: associated with voluntary migration, development-induced displacement and environmentally induced displacement.
Natural causes Forced displacement may directly result from natural disasters and indirectly from the subsequent impact on infrastructure, food and water access, and local/regional economies. Displacement may be temporary or permanent, depending on the scope of the disaster and the area's recovery capabilities. Climate change is increasing the frequency of major natural disasters, possibly placing a greater number of populations in situations of forced displacement.. Also crop failures due to blight and/or pests fall within this category by affecting people's access to food. Additionally, the term environmental refugee represents people who are forced to leave their traditional habitat because of environmental factors which negatively impact their livelihood, or even environmental disruption i.e. biological, physical or chemical change in ecosystem.Terminski, Bogumil. Environmentally-Induced Displacement: Theoretical Frameworks and Current Challenges, University de Liege, 2012. Migration can also occur as a result of slow-onset climate change, such as desertification or sea-level rise, of deforestation or land degradation.
Examples of forced displacement caused by natural disasters
January 2025 Southern California wildfires: LA Fires displacing approximately 200,000 people. 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: Resulting from a 9.1 earthquake off the coast of North Sumatra, the Indian Ocean Tsunami claimed over 227,898 lives, heavily damaging coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean. As a result, over 1.7 million people were displaced, mostly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. Hurricane Katrina (2005): Striking New Orleans, Louisiana, in late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina inflicted approximately US$125 billion in damages, standing as one of the costliest storms in United States history.Blake, Eric S, and Landsea, Christopher W. (August 2011). https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/nws-nhc-6.pdf "The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones from 1851 to 2010 (And Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts)". NOAA Technical Memorandum. As a result of the damage inflicted by Katrina, over one million people were internally displaced. One month after the disaster, over 600,000 remained displaced. Immediately following the disaster, New Orleans lost approximately half of its population, with many residents displaced to cities such as Houston, Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Atlanta. According to numerous studies, displacement disproportionally impacted Louisiana's poorer populations, specifically African Americans. 2011 East Africa drought: Failed rains in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia led to high livestock and crop losses, driving majority pastoralist populations to surrounding areas in search of accessible food and water. In addition to seeking food and water, local populations' migration was motivated by an inability to maintain traditional lifestyles. According to researchers, although partly influenced by local armed conflict, the East African drought stands as an example of climate change impacts.
Human-made causes Human-made displacement describes forced displacement caused by political entities, criminal organizations, conflicts, human-made environmental disasters, development, etc. Although impacts of natural disasters and blights/pests may be exacerbated by human mismanagement, human-made causes refer specifically to those initiated by humans. According to UNESCO, armed conflict stands as the most common cause behind forced displacement, reinforced by regional studies citing political and armed conflict as the largest attributing factors to migrant outflows from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.Salazar, Luz María, and José Antonio Álvarez Lobato. 2018. “Violencia y Desplazamientos Forzados En México.” Revista Cuicuilco 25 (73): 19–37.
Examples of forced displacement caused by criminal activity
Displacement in Mexico due to cartel violence: Throughout Mexico, drug cartel, paramilitary, and self-defense group violence drives internal and external displacement. According to a comprehensive, mixed methodology study by Salazar and Álvarez Lobato, families fled their homes as a means of survival, hoping to escape homicide, extortion, and potential kidnapping. Using a collection of available data and existing studies, the total number of displaced persons between 2006 and 2012 was approximately 740,000.