Refugees and migrants share social needs despite legal separation

Evidence

Refugees: according to the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person residing outside his or her country of nationality, who is unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Signatories to the Convention undertake to protect refugees by allowing them to enter and granting temporary or permanent residence status. Although refugee organizations, in particular the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), seek to draw a strict line between refugees and migrants, they do share many common characteristics with regard to social needs and cultural impacts in their place of settlement (UNHCR, 1997). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3812

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the formal 1951 Convention refugee definition and the UNHCR’s stake in policing the refugee/migrant line.