Definition Of Refugee Vs Migrant

While there is no formal legal definition of an international migrant most experts agree that an international migrant is someone who changes his or her.

Definition of refugee vs migrant. Many of those crossing the u s. As noted above there is no such pre cise and universal definition of a migrant. They have a well founded fear of persecution if they were to return home. Refugees are people fleeing armed conflicts or persecution there were 19 5 million of them worldwide at the end of 2014 according to unhcr.

And we say migrants when we mean people moving for reasons not included in the legal definition of a refugee. In the current migration crisis the terms migrant refugee and less commonly asylum seeker are used daily to mean one and the same thing. Before they decide to leave their country migrants can seek information about their new home study the language and explore employment opportunities. We hope that others will give thought to doing the same.

A refugee does not cease to be a refugee or become a migrant simply because they leave one host country to travel to another. Each term however has a distinct meaning that. More on key refugee definitions. A refugee is strictly defined in international law as a person who is fleeing persecution or conflict in her or his country of origin.

Their situation is so perilous that they cross national borders to seek safety in nearby countries and become recognised as refugees with access to assistance from states and aid organisations. Choices about words do matter. A person is a refugee because of the lack of protection by their country of origin. What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant.

Moving to a new country of asylum does not change this so it does not affect a person s status as a refugee. The legal definition of the term refugee was set out in the 1951 un convention on the status of refugees a few years after world war two ended. Border from central american countries el salvador guatemala and honduras are asylum seekers not migrants. Refugees are forced to flee their home countries because of armed conflict or persecution migrants are people who choose to resettle to another country in search of a better life cnn the.

We say refugees when we mean people fleeing war or persecution across an international border.