The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a United Nations related organization working in the field of migration. The organization implements operational assistance programmes for migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers.
Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another, with intentions of settling, permanently or temporarily, at a new location. The movement often occurs over long distances and from one country to another, but internal migration is the dominant form of human migration globally.
Forced displacement is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations".
A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
African immigrants in Europe are individuals residing in Europe who were born in Africa. This includes both individuals born in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Circular migration or repeat migration is the temporary and usually repetitive movement of a migrant worker between home and host areas, typically for the purpose of employment. It represents an established pattern of population mobility, whether cross-country or rural-urban. There are several benefits associated with this migration pattern, including gains in financial capital, human capital, and social capital. There are also costs associated with circular migration, such as brain drain, poor working conditions, forced labor, and the inability to transfer acquired skills to home economies. Socially, there are strong connections to gender, health outcomes, development, poverty, and global immigration policy.
Ayman Zohry is a demographer/geographer and expert on migration studies based in Cairo, Egypt. He was born in Souhag, Egypt. Zohry received his Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in 2002. He is a leading researcher in the field of migration studies in Egypt with a special focus on irregular migration.
International migration occurs when people cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum length of the time. Migration occurs for many reasons. Many people leave their home countries in order to look for economic opportunities in another country. Others migrate to be with family members who have migrated or because of political conditions in their countries. Education is another reason for international migration, as students pursue their studies abroad, although this migration is sometimes temporary, with a return to the home country after the studies are completed.
Internal migration or domestic migration is human migration within a country. Internal migration tends to be travel for education and for economic improvement or because of a natural disaster or civil disturbance, though a study based on the full formal economy of the United States found that the median post-move rise in income was only 1%.
In 2019 Zimbabwe was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Large scale migration of Zimbabweans to surrounding countries - as they fled a progressively more desperate situation at home - increased, and NGOs, international organizations, and governments in neighboring countries reported an upsurge in these Zimbabweans facing conditions of exploitation, including human trafficking. Rural Zimbabwean men, women, and children were trafficked internally to farms for agricultural labor and domestic servitude and to cities for domestic labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Women and children were trafficked for domestic labor and sexual exploitation, including in brothels, along both sides of the borders with Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. Young men and boys were trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often laboring for months in South Africa without pay before "employers" have them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants. Young women and girls were lured to South Africa, the People's Republic of China, Egypt, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada with false employment offers that result in involuntary domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation. Men, women, and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia were trafficked through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa. Small numbers of South African girls were trafficked to Zimbabwe for domestic servitude. The government’s efforts to address trafficking at home have increased with the introduction of the National Action Plan (NAP) as well as the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Act. In addition, the trafficking situation in the country is worsening as more of the population is made vulnerable by declining socio-economic conditions.
On 18 December 1990, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
During the period of 1965 – 2021, an estimated 440,000 people per year emigrated from Africa; a total number of 17 million migrants within Africa was estimated for 2005. The figure of 0.44 million African emigrants per year pales in comparison to the annual population growth of about 2.6%, indicating that only about 2% of Africa's population growth is compensated for by emigration.
Migrant sex work is sex work done by migrant workers. It is significant because of its role as a dominant demographic of sex work internationally. It has common features across various contexts, such as migration from rural to urban areas and from developing to industrialized nations, and the economic factors that help to determine migrant status. Migrant sex workers have also been the subject of discussions concerning the legality of sex work, its connection to sex trafficking, and the views of national governments and non-governmental organizations about the regulation of sex work and the provision of services for victims of sex trafficking.
Eric Neumayer is a professor of Environment and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is Pro-Director of Faculty Development. He holds a Diplom in Economics from Saarland University, a Master of Science and PhD in Development Studies from LSE, awarded by the University of London. In 2003, he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in Geography. He is an Associate of the Center for the Study of Civil War at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Zimbabwean Canadians are Canadian citizens of Zimbabwean descent or a Zimbabwe-born person who resides in Canada. According to the 2016 Canadian census there were 16,225 Canadian citizens who claimed Zimbabwean ancestry and 15,000 Zimbabwean citizens residing in the country at the moment of the census.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Ukraine is an official representative office of the International Organization for Migration in the country and is located in its capital city Kyiv.
Shelter of Jesus the Good Shepherd for the Poor and Migrant is a refugee shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico for Latin American migrants.
According to the United Nations, human smuggling is defined as "the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident." While flows of migration have come and gone throughout history, current numbers surrounding human movement are unprecedented. Geographic, economic, and demographic factors create distinct migration patterns and routes over time. In 2020, there were 281 million international migrants across the globe, making up 3.6% of the global population. Though this is a small percentage of the total population, the number of individuals residing in states outside of where they were born has more than tripled since 1970. Looking at the most recent migration events in the Mediterranean, crossing the sea has been a primary method smugglers use to enter migrants into Europe. Since the 2015 Migration Crisis, the Central Mediterranean region has been declared the deadliest migration route in the world. Nearly 28,000 irregular migrants have arrived in Europe in 2024, with over 11,000 crossing the Mediterranean Sea in the process.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted migrants throughout the globe. Low-skilled migrants, refugees, and internally-displaced migrants are at a higher risk of contracting the virus. The pandemic has also aggravated the dangers of already-dangerous migration routes. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, international organizations have recorded a spike in human rights abuses suffered by migrants, especially in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The restrictions on travel, imposed as a measure to contain the virus, have resulted in a rise in "stranded migrants," individuals who want to return to their home countries but cannot.
Climate migration is a subset of climate-related mobility that refers to movement driven by the impact of sudden or gradual climate-exacerbated disasters, such as "abnormally heavy rainfalls, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental degradation, or sea-level rise and cyclones". Gradual shifts in the environment tend to impact more people than sudden disasters. The majority of climate migrants move internally within their own countries, though a smaller number of climate-displaced people also move across national borders.
