Refugees, forced migration, and conflict: Introduction to the special issue
| Author | Alex Braithwaite,Burcu Savun,Idean Salehyan |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343318814128 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| Published date | 01 January 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Introduction |
Introduction
Refugees, forced migration, and conflict:
Introduction to the special issue
Alex Braithwaite
School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona
Idean Salehyan
Department of Political Science, University of North Texas
Burcu Savun
Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh
Abstract
Few issues in international politics have dominated public debates, both in domestic and international arenas, as
much as refugee movements across borders in recent years. By the end of 2017, more than 68.5 million people –
one in approximately every 110 people on the planet – had been displaced from their homes, either as internally
displaced persons (IDPs) or as refugees, due to violent conflict, persecution, famine, or natural disasters. This
article introduces a special issue on refugees, forced migration, and conflict. It describes the evolution of the
international refugee regime and identifies theoretical and methodological advances in the relevant literature. It
concludes with a discussion of the individual contributions to the issue, which seek to address gaps in the literature
with respect to explaining motivations for refugee departures, understanding the relationship between refugee
populations and political instability in host countries, and tracking public attitudes towards hosting refugee
populations.
Keywords
forced migration, political violence, refugees
By the end of 2017, more than 68.5 million people – one
in approximately every 110 people on the planet – had
been displaced from their homes due to violent conflict,
persecution, famine, or natural disasters (United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR, 2018a). As
shown in Figure 1, the number of internally displaced
persons (IDPs) has increased rapidly over the past decade
to the point today where more than two-thirds of all
displaced persons remain in their home cou ntry. The
remaining one-third of displaced people are refugees;
of whom more than two-thirds come from five
conflict-ridden countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South
Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. Both refugee and IDP
populations are now at record levels for the post-World
War II period. The previous record for refugees came
shortly after the conclusion of the Cold War.
This movement of IDPs within conflict countries
and the flow of refugees out of conflict countries is
clearly a humanitarian disaster. It is also a major issue
in contemporary world politics, with economic, demo-
graphic, political, and security implications for host
states (Greenhill, 2010; Milton, Spencer & Findley,
2013; Miller & Ritter, 2014; Miller & Peters, 2018;
Salehyan & Gleditsch, 2006). The Syrian refugee crisis
in particular has captured headlines as countries in the
region, as well as througho ut Europe, have scrambled to
form an appropriate response. Mass migration has
entered squarely into political debates in multiple
Corresponding author:
burcu@pitt.edu
Journal of Peace Research
2019, Vol. 56(1) 5–11
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343318814128
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