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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 11/03
A Pressing Humanitarian and Development Issue: Reflections on Internal Displacement and Resettlement
Robert Muggah
July 2003
Abstract
There is considerable disagreement in academic and policy circles about what precisely constitutes internal displacement and resettlement1 – when it begins and ends, what kinds of rights to protection and assistance such people are entitled to, how it can be measured and understood, and who should be responsible for managing it.
While it is fashionable to speak of the importance of labels in social relations – there is no more an obvious a case of the importance of definitions in debates on forced migration. In reviewing the (voluminous) literature, definitions are loose and careless. The concepts of refugee, migrant and internally displaced person are regularly used synonymously. In many cases the concept of "refugee" – a term with precise legal parameters – is used to describe a disparate constituency, from populations fleeing exploding volcanoes to populations displaced by road-building schemes.
