A migration studies expert, in her interview with Sky News Arabia, anticipates the direction of the migration curve in the near future, and what she sees as necessary steps to reduce it.
And at the end of the week, the UN announced its statistics on migrants and “forcibly displaced” in the year 2022, and conflict and climate change beyond, and their number reached 108 million. people.
The most striking statistics
According to the UNHCR report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2022:
The number of forcibly displaced people has increased by around 19 million compared to 2021, the highest increase ever recorded in history. bringing the total to 108 million people. This figure includes 62.5 million internally displaced persons, 35.3 million refugees, 5.4 million asylum seekers and 5.2 million people in need of international protection. The heaviest burden falls on low- and middle-income countries, which host 76% of the world’s refugees. 52% of all refugees and applicants for international protection come from just 3 countries: Syria (6.5 million), Ukraine (5.7 million) and Afghanistan (5.7 million). Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees with 3.6 million, followed by Iran (3.4 million), Colombia (2.5 million) and Germany (2.1 million). Lebanon and Europe have hosted the largest number of refugees and people in need of international protection compared to their local population.
Unprecedented displacement
Last May, a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center and the Norwegian Refugee Council added huge figures for specific countries, including that the war in Ukraine has caused the displacement of around 17 million people, while that 8 million people left their homes due to floods in Pakistan in 2022. .
According to a statement by the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, “conflicts and disasters have combined in 2022 and caused displacement on an unprecedented scale”.
Regarding the impact of climate change, the year 2022 saw the displacement of 33.7 million people due to natural disasters such as volcanoes, earthquakes, floods and droughts.
Motivation to improve standard of living
If conflicts, wars and climate change have come to explain the reasons for the increase in migration, whether forced or voluntary, there is another no less important reason, which is migration with the aim of improving the standard of living, even from countries not witnessing conflict.
The United Nations website previously mentioned in a report entitled “The Way Back”, that 51 million immigrants worldwide in 2015 were motivated by the search for employment opportunities and additional income.
And on migration trends in the near future, Elaine Teolet, professor of international migration at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, told “Sky News Arabia”:
The association of climate change with instability in some countries will inevitably lead to increased internal displacement and overseas emigration. Climate change could force 216 million people to move within their own countries by 2050, according to the World Bank. Green development (based on development projects that respect the environment and are resilient to climate change) is a necessity in all countries; Because it can reduce travel by providing employment opportunities and reducing climate risks.
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