Important definitions

Question 1

International migrant

Answer 1

An international migrant is defined as any person who changes his or her country of usual residence. A person’s country of usual residence is that in which the person lives. It refers to the country in which the person has a place to live where he or she normally spends the daily period of rest. Temporary travel abroad for purposes of recreation, holiday, business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage does not entail a change in the country of usual residence.

Question 2

Globalization

Answer 2

Widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnectedness

• of social, political and economic activities (extensity)
• of patterns of interaction and flows (intensity)
• of global interactions and processes (velocity)
• of the ways in which local events may affect distant lands (impact)

Globalization is a set of processes that embody a transformation in the spacial organization of social relations and transactions, generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and power.

It stretches social, political and economic activities across regions and continents.
It intensifies our dependence on each other as flows of trade, investment, finance, migration and culture increase.
It speeds up the world.
It means that distant events have a deeper impact on our lives.

Question 3

Migration

Answer 3

is the crossing an international border to settle in another country. Ideally
migrants should have the right documents depending on the law of the country that they leave, the one they want to go to, and those that they cross on their way.

Question 4

Irregular migration

Answer 4

used to describe the movement of people WITHOUT documents or WITH false documents. If apprehended, irregular migrants can be detained and forcefully repatriated.

Question 5

Asylum seekers

Answer 5

They can demand a permit to stay by pointing to the risks to which they were exposed in their own country. In case their application is successful, asylum seekers become REFUGEES

Question 6

Refugees

Answer 6

For the GENEVA Convention 1951, people can have refugee status when they are
or fear to be persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality or political
opinion.

For the AFRICAN UNITY Convention 1969 they can have been forced to leave by an
external aggression or a natural disaster happening in their country.

Finally, the CARTAGENA Declaration 1984 says that people whose lives, security or
freedom have been threatened by generalized violence and violations of
human rights have the right to refugee status.

Question 7

Internally Displaced People

Answer 7

Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or (IDPs) 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.

Question 8

Environmental stress

Answer 8

Environmental stress can be either natural or anthropogenic (i.e., resulting from human actions) in origin. Many environmental stresses, such as most hurricanes, droughts, floods, and fires are a periodic feature of life on Earth. In contrast, environmental stresses such as the production and release of new chemical compounds and large-scale land-use changes result directly from human actions.

Question 9

Sudden onset

Answer 9

Environmental disaster - hurricane

Question 10

Slow onset

Answer 10

Drought, land degradation, sea level rice, ice melting

Question 11

Adaptation

Answer 11

Adaptation involves adjustment to enhance the viability of social and economic activities and to
reduce their vulnerability to climate, including its current variability to climate, and extreme weather events as well as longer-term climate changes (Smit, 1993)

Adaptation is the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (IPCC, 2007)

Adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts. It refers to changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change (UNFCCC, 2013)

Question 12

Climate migration

Answer 12

The movement of a person or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, are obliged to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a State or across an international border. (IOM)

Question 13

Displacement

Answer 13

The movement 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.

Question 14

Environmental migrant

Answer 14

A person or group(s) of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are forced to leave their places of habitual residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move within or outside their country of origin or habitual residence. (IOM)

Question 15

Internal migration

Answer 15

The movement of people within a State involving the establishment of a new temporary or permanent residence.

Question 16

Labour migration

Answer 16

Movement of persons from one State to another, or within their own country of residence, for the purpose of employment.

Question 17

Regular migration

Answer 17

Migration that occurs in compliance with the laws of the country of origin, transit and destination.

Question 18

Reintegration

Answer 18

A process which enables individuals to re-establish the economic, social and psychosocial relationships needed to maintain life, livelihood and dignity and inclusion in civic life.

Question 19

Remittances

Answer 19

Private international monetary transfers that migrants make, individually or collectively.

Question 20

Removal

Answer 20

Also referred to as deportation or, sometimes, expulsion, the act, following a deportation, expulsion or removal order by which a State physically removes a non-national from its territory to his or her country of origin or a third country after refusal of admission or termination of permission to remain.

Question 21

Smuggling of migrants

Answer 21

The procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the irregular entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident.

Question 22

Stateless person

Answer 22

A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.

Question 23

Trafficking in persons

Answer 23

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

Question 24

Vulnerability

Answer 24

Within a migration context, vulnerability is the limited capacity to avoid, resist, cope with, or recover from harm. This limited capacity is the result of the unique interaction of individual, household, community, and structural characteristics and conditions.

Question 25

Borders

Answer 25

Politically defined boundaries separating territory or maritime zones between political entities and the areas where political entities exercise border governance measures on their territory or extraterritorially. Such areas include border crossing points (airports, land border crossing points, ports), immigration and transit zones, the “no-man’s land” between crossing points of neighbouring countries, as well as embassies and consulates (insofar as visa issuance is concerned).

Question 26

Environmental refugee (OIM)

Answer 26

Persons or groups of persons
who, for reasons of sudden
or progressive changes in the
environment that adversely
affect their lives or living
conditions, are obliged to
have to leave their habitual
home, or choose to do so,
either temporarily or
permanently, and who move
either within their territory or
abroad