What is the difference between migrants refugees and asylum seekers

Some are eventually resettled in a new place. It matters what labels we use, what terms we apply. It changes our perceptions, it creates a narrative. It can incite fear or invoke sympathy. But what matters even more is that we not lose sight of the humanity of people, no matter what label is applied. Each person has a name, a face, a family, a history.

When we bury people in rhetoric, when we dehumanize with a term, we strip others of dignity, we change the way they are seen and heard and loved. But when we pull off the mantle of labels, when we allow people to move past assumptions, past false narratives, they are able to reclaim their story, their humanity. We allow them to rise. Update: an earlier version of this post included people fleeing natural disasters as a definition of refugee.

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Follow the instructions in it to access your account. The words we choose are important. Iraqi children. Refugee A refugee is any person who has been forced to flee their country due to war, persecution, or because their home government cannot or will not protect them. Migrant Migrants are people who are leaving their home country and pursuing residency in another place, generally to find work, seek education, or to be reunited with their families. Some governments are unable or unwilling to provide that protection.

Many IDPs are forced into camps, and many lack the means or ability to leave their country of origin even if they want to. Migrant is the classification for someone who is moving between temporary homes within their origin country or across international borders.

This is different from an immigrant, who makes the conscious decision to move and resettle in a new country. While legal migrants enjoy many rights and refugees have their own special protections, migrants who are traveling without valid passports or travel documents — including those who were forced to flee without those documents, or do not have them — are often much more vulnerable.

As of , 1 person is uprooted every 2 seconds often with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Consider this example: Omar is a young man fleeing violence in Syria. He makes a treacherous journey across the Mediterranean, and arrives in Greece.

There, he ends up in a camp that is overcrowded and there are few economic opportunities as the area. Omar hears from friends in Sweden that, if he moves there, he can get a decent job and apartment. So he leaves Greece and flies to Sweden. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer, as different countries interpret the law in different ways. Technically, Omar began his journey in Greece as an asylum-seeker. The main issue would then be whether or not he claimed and was granted asylum there.

If he did, he would not be entitled to claim asylum in Sweden as well, unless he applies for it and goes through an approval process that could take several years. However, if Omar never officially applied for asylum in Greece, his status is much less clear. There is no legal obligation for refugees to seek asylum in a particular country. This has sometimes meant that an asylum-seeker who had the opportunity to claim asylum in a neighboring safe country but did not do so may be returned to that country for their claim to be determined.

In recent years large numbers of people, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, have migrated across Europe, entering countries that are technically safe but in which their arrival was not welcomed. Their goal is to reach a country that is openly welcoming, such as Germany or Sweden. A Syrian child living in an informal settlement inear the city of Halba in Northern Lebanon. In Akaar district, Concern works with Syrian refugees in education, protection, shelter, hygiene promotion, and the provision of water and sanitation services.

Many refugees find themselves in situations like this. Desperate to provide a better life for their families after reaching a place of safety, they move to another country where they may not be given refugee status but stand a better chance of employment.

Asylum seekers must apply for protection in the country of destination—meaning they must arrive at or cross a border in order to apply. Then, they must be able to prove to authorities there that they meet the criteria to be covered by refugee protections. Not every asylum seeker will be recognized as a refugee. Tens of thousands of children and families from Central America have fled extreme danger—murder, kidnapping, violence against women and forced recruitment by gangs. Those arriving at the U.

An immigrant is someone who makes a conscious decision to leave his or her home and move to a foreign country with the intention of settling there. Immigrants often go through a lengthy vetting process to immigrate to a new country. Many become lawful permanent residents and eventually citizens. Immigrants research their destinations, explore employment opportunities, and study the language of the country where they plan to live.

Most importantly, they are free to return home whenever they choose. A migrant is someone who is moving from place to place within his or her country or across borders , usually for economic reasons such as seasonal work. Similar to immigrants, they were not forced to leave their native countries because of persecution or violence, but rather are seeking better opportunities.

Many of those crossing the U. They have a well-founded fear of persecution if they were to return home.