NOMAD:

Since the earliest times, humanity has been on the move. A nomad is a person with no settled home,
moving from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making
a living. The word “nomad” comes from a Greek word meaning “roaming about for pasture.” They
moved from place to place in search of food and water. They did this because the animals on which they
were dependent for food, moved to distant places.

Some cultures around the world have always been nomadic. In today’s industrialized countries, nomads
are few and far between. However, there are still 30-40 million nomads around the world today. The
freedom to move is so precious that it is a protected human right.

MIGRATION:

The movement of a person or a group of persons, either across an international border, or within a State.
It is a population movement, encompassing any kind of movement of people, whatever its length,
composition and causes; it includes migration of refugees, displaced persons, economic migrants, and
persons moving for other purposes, including family reunification. Migration is the movement of people
from one region to another.

IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION:

The term means a permanent move. It only applies to people. The word immigration came from the Latin
term” immigrare” that translates to “to go into.” The Latin term “emigrare” or “to move” in English is the
origin of the term emigrate. One of the main reasons why people emigrate is to improve their quality of
life or their chances of employment.

FORCED MIGRATION:

Slave migrations and mass expulsions also have been part of human history for millennia. The largest
slave migrations were probably those compelled by European slave traders operating in Africa from the
16th to the 19th century; perhaps 20 million slaves were consigned to the Americas, though substantial
numbers died in the appalling conditions of the Atlantic passage.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS:

How does one become an illegal immigrant?

A person may cross a border against the rules of the country they’re entering. Someone may have been
living in a country according to its rules until their visa expired, was cancelled, or they could no longer
meet its conditions. A person’s status might also change without them knowing – sometimes people are
even identified as “illegal immigrants” in their home country.

REFUGEES:

Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an
international border to find safety in another country. They often have had to flee with little more than the
clothes on their back, leaving behind homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones. A refugee is a person who
has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution
there. The risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice but to leave and seek
safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those
dangers. Refugees have a right to international protection.

ASYLUM SEEKERS:

Asylum is the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political
refugee.

An asylum-seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and
serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a
refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking asylum is a human right. This
means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum.

Are the Refugees allowed to return to their home?

Refugees are generally not allowed to travel back to their home country. Refugee protection is granted on
the presumption that it is unsafe to return. Going back would imply that the situation in their country has
improved and refugee status is not necessary anymore. Authorities could also come to the conclusion that
the grounds on which they granted protection were unfounded in the first place. There are circumstances
that the BAMF (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtling) considers exceptional. Some examples of this:
attending a funeral or visiting severely ill family members. If a person returns for these reasons, this will
not prompt revocation of refugee status. However, the BAMF said it cannot make general statements
because each case is assessed individually.

UNHCR (stands for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also known as the UN Refugee
Agency) recommends that people who are likely to be asylum-seekers or refugees are referred to as such,
and that the word ‘migrant' should not be used as a catchall term to refer to refugees or to people who are
likely to need international protection. Doing so can risk undermining access to the specific legal
protections that states are obliged to provide to refugees. A person who has left their home country as a
political refugee and is seeking asylum in another.

It is important to understand that, just because migrants do not flee persecution, they are still entitled to
have all their human rights protected and respected, regardless of the status they have in the country they
moved to. Governments must protect all migrants from racist and xenophobic violence, exploitation and
forced labor. Migrants should never be detained or forced to return to their countries without a legitimate
reason.

“Not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an
asylum seeker.”

RESETTLEMENT

The refugees will usually be granted asylum or some other form of long-term resident rights and, in many
cases, will have the opportunity to become citizens.

Why does resettlement occur?

Many refugees cannot go home because of continued conflict, wars and persecution. Many also live in
perilous situations or have specific needs that cannot be addressed in the country where they have sought
protection. In such circumstances, UNHCR helps resettle refugees to a third country.

A "third country" basically refers to any country outside the EU. The EU countries are: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Not part of EU:

 Albania
 Andorra
 Armenia
 Azerbaijan
 Belarus
 Bosnia and Herzegovina**
 Georgia
 Iceland
 Kosovo**
 Liechtenstein
 Moldova
 Monaco
 Montenegro*
 North Macedonia*
 Norway
 Russia
 San Marino
 Serbia*
 Switzerland
 Turkey*
 Ukraine
 United Kingdom (left EU on January 31, 2020)
STATELESSNESS

A stateless person is someone who, under national laws, does not enjoy citizenship – the legal bond
between a government and an individual – in any country. At the end of 2019, the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (the agency mandated to prevent and reduce statelessness) counted 4.2
million stateless persons worldwide, but estimated that the actual number may be over 10 million due to
underreporting.

What Are the Causes of Statelessness? How does a person become stateless?

 Lack of birth registration and birth certificates;

 Birth to stateless parents;
 Targeted discrimination against minorities;
But the main reason why, statelessness occur is because of social discrimination. Citizenship might be
stripped from certain groups of people on the grounds of their ethnicity. Say, for example, the Italians and
the Filipinos live in a place together, let’s call that place Wonderland. If the Italians take over, they could
say that all Italians are allowed of citizenship of Wonderland, but Filipinos are not. The Filipinos, even
though they might have never left Wonderland, are now stateless, having been discriminated against
because of their ethnicity. Though this violates international law, it’s difficult to stop it from happening.

Non-state territories can also result in statelessness. Only states can have citizens, and thus is a territory
is not recognized as a state, the residents there cannot be citizens. This is what has happened in the
Palestinian territories. Even though Palestinians were issued Palestinian passports, many countries do not
recognize their citizenship or the legitimacy of the Palestinian state. Due to the conflict between Palestine
and Israel, many Palestinians have not applied for Israeli citizenship for quite understandable ideological
reasons. Most Palestinians who do not have Israeli citizenship are stateless.

What Are the Consequences That Stateless People Encounter?

Without citizenship, stateless people have no legal protection and no right to vote, and they often lack
access to education, employment, health care, registration of birth, marriage or death, and property rights.
Stateless people may also encounter travel restrictions, social exclusion, and heightened vulnerability to
sexual and physical violence, exploitation, trafficking in persons, forcible displacement, and other abuses.

Reasons for Migration

Some people move in search of labor or economic opportunities, to join family or to study. However, not
all migration happens in positive circumstances. Other move to escape conflict, persecution, terrorism, or
human rights violation. Similarly, others move in response to the adverse effects of climate change,
natural disasters, or other environmental factors.

There are many reasons why it might be too difficult or dangerous for people to stay in their own
countries. For example, children, woman and men flee from violence, war, hunger, extreme poverty,
because of their sexual or gender orientation, or from the consequences of climate change or other natural
disasters. Often people will face a combination of these difficult circumstances.

People who leave their countries are not always fleeing danger. They might believe they have a better
chance of finding work in another country because they have the education or capital to seek
opportunities elsewhere. Others might want to join relatives or friends who are already living abroad. Or
they might seek to start or finish their education in another country. There are lots of different reasons for
people to start a journey to build a life in a new country.

How Can We Categorize These Reasons for Migration?

A push factor refers to conditions which force people to leave their homes. A person would typically
move because of distress (safety, natural disaster, or political conflict). Although push factors don’t
require a person to leave their home, the conditions impacting the push factors often negatively impact the
quality of life for the person if they choose to stay. Places that experience drought and famine, war
conflicts, and/or high unemployment would contribute to the push factors that trigger migration for that
country’s residents.

Pull factors are factors in the destination country that attract the individual or group to leave their home.
These factors attract people to a new place largely because of the opportunities presented in the new
location were not available to them previously. An example of a pull factor would include a family
moving from a country with minimal job opportunities to a new location with more opportunities for a
successful career. The beneficial elements that the new country presents encourages people to migrate
there in order to seek a better life for their families.

The reasons why people migrate are seemingly as numerous as the world’s countries themselves. The UN
Population Division states that since 1960, at least 2.5 percent of the world’s population have been
international migrants. The combination of these two ideas means that this concept is not new: migrants
have been, are, and will continue to be part of our communities which are increasingly more vibrant due
to the integration of new cultural influences. By welcoming migrants into our communities, this ensures
they will adapt to the local culture quicker and more efficiently as well as enriching the community by the
exchange of new ideas and cultural norms.

SDGs

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in
others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Countries have committed to prioritize progress for those who're furthest behind. The SDGs are
designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women and girls.

Further, the SDG’s motto to “leave no one behind” is a clear call for sustainable development to
be inclusive, including for migrants. At least ten out of 17 goals contain targets and indicators
that are directly relevant to migration or mobility. The inclusion of migration in the 2030 Agenda
presents countries with a series of new migration data challenges and reporting requirements. At
the same time, this presents a crucial opportunity to improve migration data.