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Definition: refugees from Collins Dictionary of Law

for the purposes of the United Nations, refugees are persons who, having left their country, are determined to have a well-founded fear of persecution on certain specific grounds or are unable to avail themselves of the protection of the government of their state or origin.

Refugees

From Encyclopedia of Geography
The concept of a refugee is an inherently geographical one, a barometer of political instability and the embodiment of forced migration. In current usage, the term has two main meanings; one is colloquial and often political, while the other is legal. In the wake of the humanitarian disaster that emerged after Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States in August 2005, the media called those Americans huddled on the rooftops of their homes awaiting help and people who had sought shelter in the local sports stadium “refugees.” Many refused the term, saying that they did not want to be racialized as poor, African, or other. Yet others defended the term as appropriate, saying that the Bush administration was neither able nor willing to assist and protect its own citizens in this time of need. In both cases, the term was politicized for specific reasons, yet in legal terms, the survivors of Hurricane Katrina were not legal refugees but rather internally displaced persons. …
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Full text Article REFUGEE

From Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity & Culture
The term ‘refugee’, via Old French from the Latin refugium from refugere (to flee away), refers to people who have had to abandon or flee their country of origin as a result of serious threat to their lives or freedom such as natural catastrophe, war or military occupation, or fear of religious, …
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Full text Article Refugees

From Encyclopedia of African History
Refugees are people who are forced to leave their homelands owing to various reasons such as war, conflict, persecution, poverty, famine or environmental or social disintegration. The phenomenon of refugees reflects the major upheavals of modern times: World War I; the Russian Revolution (1917); the…
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Full text Article refugee

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
one who leaves one's native land either because of expulsion or to escape persecution. The legal problem of accepting refugees is discussed under asylum ; this article considers only mass dislocations and the organizations that help refugees. Early examples of mass dislocations include the expulsion…
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Full text Article Refugees

From New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965
The line that distinguishes refugees from other immigrants is not always easy to draw. Indeed, through most of American history, the distinction was not important as a matter of immigration policy. It has, however, become extraordinarily important since World War II, determining whether particular…
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Full text Article Refugees

From The Oxford Companion to International Relations
For most of human history, wars, political upheavals, and ethnic and religious strife have led people to flee for safety. Whether they survived and found refuge owed largely to where they landed, good fortune, or the kindness of strangers. Beginning with the twentieth century, however, states, …
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Full text Article Refugees

From Encyclopedia of Adolescence
Refugees are individuals forced to flee their countries because of persecution, war, or violence. They do so due to well-founded fears of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Similarly, individuals who flee to other…
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Full text Article Refugees

From The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion
Religion is deeply intertwined with forced migration and global refugee resettlement efforts. Religious persecution may be the cause of a refugee fleeing their country, and religious identity is increasingly politicised by receiving states in determining whom to accept as refugees. Faith-based…
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Full text Article Refugees

From The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies
A refugee is defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Status of Refugees, passed in 1951, as someone who is fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, or membership of a social group. Arguably the most important principle of the…
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Full text Article refugees

From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
In everyday speech the term ‘refugee’ conveys broad notions of destitution and escape from natural disaster or warfare. However, the definition in international law, following Article 1A (2) of the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees , is far narrower. In Convention…
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Full text Article Refugees

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Introduction Refugees are people who can demonstrate that they have fled their normal country of residence for reasons of persecution or fear of persecution. The cause is therefore political and the migration has to be across an international border. However, it is difficult to define persecution, …
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