Forced Migration Research

Forced migration and its multifarious consequences are evident in the United States and around the world. Today, examples of forced migration include the refugee crisis emerging from the Syrian civil war; the Rohingya people fleeing to Bangladesh to escape murder and violence inflicted by Myanmar’s state forces; migrants from Honduras and El Salvador forced into a treacherous migration route through Mexico to the United States to escape violence; and the challenges facing Ethiopia, which hosts the largest number of refugees in the world even though it lacks basic necessities for that population, such as clean water. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that nearly 71 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide. The rising number of forced migrants and the dire conditions that they face demonstrates the urgent need for a systematic policy-related review of the available data and analyses on forced migration and refugee movements.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in May 2019 to bring fresh and innovative approaches in social demographic theory, methodology, data collection and analysis, and practice and applications to the forefront of the community of researchers and practitioners who are concerned with better understanding and assisting forced migrant populations. Although only some of the workshop sessions are highlighted below, the workshop spanned a large breadth of topics and methodologies, including conceptual and definitional issues, survey research, administrative data collection and analysis, and forecasts and projections, among others. The workshop agenda and planning was led by the co-chairs, Ellen Percy Kraly, Colgate University, and Holly E. Reed, City University of New York (CUNY), Queens College. You can find Dr. Kraly’s concept paper on this topic here, and below are highlights from the workshop.