Who Are Refugees? 

Refugee is a very specific legal term. Under international law, ‘refugees’ are persons outside their countries of origin due to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” (1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees). What are some of the implications of this term?

‍

Implications

Other commonly used terms for those seeking refuge are “forcibly displaced peoples” and “migrants”. The former describes the displaced status of people without legal protections that are unique to refugeehood, such as the right to reside in the country they are seeking refuge in . The latter term further removes the struggles of forcible displacement from the language. 

‍

Identification as a Refugee

Identification as a refugee confers special legal protection. As such, receiving refugee status (also known as asylum) is a difficult legal process. The burden to prove that one meets all the criteria to be a refugee is solely on the individual seeking asylum. Evaluation criteria widely vary depending on the country granting asylum status.

‍

Humanitarian Crises in the 21st Century

The number of forcibly displaced people and refugees in the world has steadily risen since 2010. That year, 40 million people globally were recognized as forcibly displaced--by 2020, that number increased to 82.4 million, which is approximately a quarter of the U.S. population and 30 million greater than South Korea’s. 

‍

Humanitarian Crises in the 21st Century

Sixty-eight percent of those forcibly displaced originated from just five countries--6.7 million from Syria; 4 million from Venezuela; 2.6 million from Afghanistan; 2.2 million from South Sudan; and 1.1 million from Myanmar. And this is not even an exhaustive list of the countries suffering from crises worldwide. 

‍

the US & Refugees

The Biden Administration announced that it would deport “migrants” (the descriptor chosen by the Department of Homeland Security) at the South Texan border. Deportations rapidly increased, with over 1.5 million enforcement encounters to date since Oct. 2020. The legal justification for these deportations is Title 42. A legacy of the Trump administration, this public health order allows authorities to quickly expel migrants without allowing them to seek asylum.

‍

South Korea & Refugees

South Korea is party to the 1992 Refugee Convention and the first Asian country to establish an independent Refugee Law. Despite this, the country has a dismal track record of granting refugee status to those who seek it. In 2019, 15,451 individuals applied for asylum but only 71 received this status. According to a study conducted by UNHCR and Hankook Research, 53% of South Koreans responded that they disapprove of granting refugees asylum--a number that has stayed approximately constant since the 2018 Jeju Yemen Refugee case. 

‍

Interrogating Thought 

• Do you notice a difference when the media use the terms “refugees”, “displaced people”, and “illegal immigrants.” Why are certain labels used in certain situations?
• Why has there been such a rapid rise in refugees in the past two decades?
• What kind of conflicts produce refugees? Who is involved in these conflicts?
• What kind of work is being done to assist those who have been forcibly displaced? By who?
• If migrants are forcibly returned to their “home countries”, where do they go?
• As citizens of nation-states and the world, what are our responsibilities to those who have been displaced from their homes by humanitarian crises?

‍