Ms. Patten

Push or Pull Factors Economic

employmentpoverty

Cultural/Politicalgovernmentethnic or religious conflictcivil war

Environmentalclimatenatural disastersdrought

Voluntary or Forced

Voluntary migration usually occurs as a result of a choice related to economic conditions

Forced migration means the migrant has been compelled to move most likely due to cultural factors

The United States is currently the most popular destination for immigrants

Russia is the second most popular destination for immigrants

Refugees

A very simplified definition of a refugee is “someone who is afraid to go home.”

According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person

who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,

nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the

country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself

of the protection of that country.”

http://www.openingdoorsinc.com/whatwedo_refugeeresettlementprogramfaq.php#FAQ1

Asylum Seekers or Refugees? The US maintains a distinct program for asylum seekers, as opposed to resettled

refugees. Asylum seekers are persons who have fled their countries of nationality as a result of armed conflict, violence, persecution, human rights violations, etc., and are seeking protection and immunity from forced return by the government of the country in which they are seeking asylum. For the most part, asylum seekers are individuals who have, by any of a variety of means, transported themselves to the country in which they are seeking asylum. Upon arrival in the "safe" country, an asylum seeker must plead his or her case before the relevant government agency in the hopes that the request will be granted and the individual will be allowed to permanently settle in the country of asylum.

In contrast, refugees are people who have fled their countries of nationality for reasons generally similar to those mentioned above. For the most part, however, refugees flee en masse, often by foot, into the nearest neighboring country (the vast majority of Rwandan refugees, for example, fled to Tanzania and what today is known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=229

Refugee Stats The World Refugee Survey reports that there are more than 13

million refugees worldwide. In 2000, the US resettled 72,515 refugees; more than any other country in the world.

The President of the United States determines how many refugees may be admitted into the country. For 2011, it was determined that up to 80,000 refugees could be admitted to the US under the following regional allocations (quotas):

Africa: 15,000East Asia: 19,000Europe and Central Asia: 2,000Latin America/Caribbean: 5,500Near East/South Asia: 35,500Unallocated Reserve: 3,000(Source: ImmigrationPolicy.org)

Since WW2 more refugees have found homes in the US than any other nation

Since 1980, the US has accepted 2,000,000+ refugeeshttp://www.openingdoorsinc.com/whatwedo_refugeeresettlementprogramfaq.php#FAQ1

http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=229

Refugees by Country of Origin

Internally Displaced Persons Internally displaced persons are “persons or groups

of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to 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.”

IDPs endure similar circumstances as refugees, but lack legal protection because there is no international border crossing

http://www.jrsea.org/refugees

IDP Populations

Refugees and IDP’s

Refugee Resettlement

Internally Displaced People

Minnesota Immigration