What is a refugee?

Refugeesare people who leave their home countries under situation.ions depression, threats and danger caused by various factors, such as wars, economic and social crises, natural events that make life difficult, such as lack of water and food, and political persecution.

The refuge situation is due to extreme necessity and it's a problem that affects a lot of the world today from the two possible sides of the refuge: the situation of the refugee, who leaves his homeland, and the situation of the country that receives him.

Read too: Causes and consequences of the refugee crisis

Difference between refugees and immigrants

Every refugee is an immigrant, but not every immigrant is a refugee. Migrant is the term that designates who moves, who moves, who leaves a country or city to live in another country or city.

The stems “i” or “e” are added to the word migrant to designate what leaves a place (emigrant) and what arrives at a place (immigrant). In any case, the immigrant's situation is determined by deliberation.

Immigrants are those who chose to leave their place of origin. Immigration is usually carried out by people seeking better living conditions, however, the immigrant chooses to move.

The refugee, in turn, has no choice. He finds himself in an extreme situation: either he flees his place or he could die. Refuge is not optional. The reasons why refugees leave their homelands vary.

The refugee requests asylum in a country, that is, he requests permission to live there due to a force majeure that makes it impossible for him to stay in his country of origin. The displaced (the term used to refer to people who move internally in their country to escape conflict) is not yet a refugee. What marks the transition from the internally displaced person to the refugee is the request for asylum.

Refuge causes

there are the war refugees, people who leave their cities because there is a war in them, with bombing and invasion of soldiers. there are the political refugees, people fleeing their country of origin due to political repression, a situation that usually happens in dictatorships. there are the climate refugees, people who flee their homeland because it suffers the action of natural climatic events.

There are also refugees who leave their home countries for social and economic crises that cause breakdowns in the way of life, to the point of lack of food and basic supplies, in addition to considerably increasing the level of local violence.

The city of Homs, in Syria, was destroyed by bombing.

Refugees in the world

According to the portal UN News, of the United Nations, there are currently around 80 million displaced people (temporary or permanent migrants), and of these, about 26 million|1| have refugee status in the world. This means that one in every 97 people in the world is displaced and may be a refugee. You countries that suffer the greatest losses to the refuge are developing countries from areas that suffer intense conflicts, such as Middle East and sub-Saharan African countries.

Afghanistan, Myanmar, Congo, Venezuela and Syria are examples of countries that present alarming waves of refugees who cross borders in search of survival conditions, generally going to neighboring countries (about 73%).

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, estimates that around 40% of displaced people are children and that about 85% of displaced people and refugees seek developing countries, as they tend to be more receptive. Another alarming fact is that about 4.2 million people in the world are stateless, that is, people who do not have their nationality recognized by any country.

The refugee situation is complex. While fleeing the unfavorable conditions for life in their countries of origin, end up finding new unfavorable situations in the countries where they settle. Suffer from prejudice, xenophobia, racism and religious intolerance, as well as being seen as unwanted in many places. The rise of far-right nationalist movements has become a threat to refugees, who find local resistance against the refuge anchored in xenophobic ideals.

Check out our podcast:Xenophobia in Brazil and worldwide

Video lesson on the refugee issue

Refugees in Europe

The year 2015 saw more than one million refugees move to European countries. There was an immediate reaction. On the one hand, institutions willing to welcome those people, mostly migrants from Syria It's from Congo, on the other hand, due to the sudden and expressive arrival, there was resistance against the entry of these refugees and the closing of borders.

despite the resistance of European Union in accepting refugees, many end up being able to cross borders. The problem is that the possibility of life that these people find without money and without government help is one of destitution. Many end up living on the street, which leads to extreme social vulnerability. These problems tend to get worse in the Winter, rigorous in some regions of Europe, in addition to the high exposure of these people to contagion by coronavirus and for other diseases.

Refugees in Brazil

O Brazil has been receiving high remittances from refugees in recent years. most of them made up of Venezuelans and Haitians. A significant number of Syrians also came to Brazil with the intensification of the Civil War in Syria between 2015 and 2016.

Despite the growth of a xenophobic, anti-globalist and anti-collectivist discourse here, we still maintain a certain cordiality and receptivity towards refugees. According to a survey by the Ipsus Institute published by the newspaper Newspaper, 78% of Brazilians agree to receive refugees or think the refuge is fair as a strategy to promote the Drights Hone year.

Looking at the overcrowding side, it is possible to understand the apprehension at the sudden arrival of refugees to our country. There is no ready-made structure to receive thesespeople, everything has to be built in an emergency way. Generally, the sudden and massive entry of people causes social problems related to hunger, such as the increase crime (as happened in the city of Pacaraima, when thousands of Venezuelans crossed the border after The crisis economic situation in Venezuela has tightened).

Venezuela's economic crisis resulted in the devaluation of the local currency, which made life difficult for its citizens.

The urgency is in creating public policies that allow the emergency displacement of funds to provide support to refugees, so that the situation can be controlled. Refuge is a human right, and if something must be fought, it is the situation that leads to the refuge and not the refugee himself.

Grades

|1| Check the article by clicking on here.

|2| Check the article by clicking on here.

Image credit

[1] Mohammad Bash / Shutterstock

Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/o-que-e-sociologia/o-que-e-refugiado.htm