CHAPTER SEVEN

Forced Migration

Fragility, Resilience, and Policy Responses

Manuel A. Hernandez, Olivier Ecker, Peter Läderach, and Jean-François Maystadt

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For people forced from their homes by crises, as well as hosting and sending communities, well-tailored policies can expand the positive impacts of migration

KEY MESSAGES

The decision to migrate is complex, driven by a wide range of context-specific push and pull factors, including economic, social and cultural, environmental, and safety factors.
Forced displacement — when people must leave their original place of residence — results from various triggering factors, events, and shocks. These include climate change, armed conflict, criminal violence, and economic shocks, which are often interrelated, multiplying their impact. About four-fifths of displaced people have experienced acute hunger and malnutrition.
Migration, including forced migration, constitutes an important adaptation strategy, with both challenges and opportunities. It can have benefits for migrants and for hosting and sending communities. It is a fundamental component of economic development, allowing individuals to respond to economic incentives or seek out better opportunities.
Policies that restrict the rights of migrants to work and choose a place of residence in hosting countries should be considered barriers to economic and social integration and development.
Migration requires resources and socioeconomic networks, and often those who stay behind are the most vulnerable.

To improve the outcomes of forced migration, it is critical to:

Invest in research to develop better-tailored policies that expand the positive effects of migration and limit negative ones on migrants and their families, sending communities, and hosting communities.
Adopt nontraditional methods and analytical approaches to trace migration. These can provide new research avenues to better understand the key factors driving forced migration, including irregular migration, which is inherently more difficult to measure and analyze.
Align social protection and climate action objectives. As conflict and climate change further worsen the global humanitarian crisis — and drive forced migration — humanitarian and climate investments must mutually support peace, security, and climate adaptation and mitigation.
Identify measures for accelerating the transition from humanitarian aid to development policy and for better integrating refugees into hosting communities. Different options should be considered for integration, with special attention given to the needs of displaced women.
Prioritize addressing “forced immobility” (that is, the situation of those who are not able or choose not to relocate) — a problem that has received little policy attention.