JUNE 20, 2023
BY MANUEL HERNANDEZ
June 20 is World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations to honor refugees around the globe and celebrate the strength and courage of those who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. Migration, a recurrent and multidimensional phenomenon, is driven by various factors that either push people to move from their current location or attract them to a new one. In IFPRI's 2023 Global Food Policy Report: Rethinking Food Crisis Responses, my colleagues Olivier Ecker, Peter Läderach, Jean-François Maystadt, and I delve into the growth of forced migration and its causes, consequences, and potential policy responses to improve outcomes. This blog post explores the significance of World Refugee Day and the complex dynamics of global migration.
Worldwide, one in every seven people is a migrant, whether a forced or voluntary migrant. Some key migration facts include:
- International migration has surged by 62% (107 million) over the past 20 years and a large share of migrants originate from rural areas.
- The number of refugees has doubled since the early 2000s, most of them hosted by low- and middle-income countries.
- 80% of displaced people have experienced acute food insecurity, a situation worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- An important share of people displaced by climate change are women, who additionally face higher risks of violence.
- Forced migration may also translate into irregular migration – the movement of people outside the laws and regulations – for example, a record number of apprehensions were made at the US-Mexico border last year (triple the 2019 figure). Read More