Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies
Volume 13, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 439-456

Forced Migration and “Rejected Alternatives”: A Conceptual Refinement (Article)

Bartram D.*
  • a Department of Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

Abstract

The “forced migration” concept can obscure how some people who migrate in this mode exercise a key form of agency. Some refugee flows occur when people reasonably reject options that might obviate the need to flee (e.g., abandoning their religious beliefs). A similar form of agency must be recognized regarding forced migration of other types: people facing severe economic difficulties sometimes become migrants by rejecting options that might secure their subsistence, and when that choice is reasonable because the alternatives amount to human rights violations, we should then describe their migration as “forced” even if it is not wholly involuntary. © 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Author Keywords

Forced migration Subsistence human rights Refugees Eritrea

Index Keywords

subsistence Eritrea refugee human rights forced migration

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84949545447&doi=10.1080%2f15562948.2015.1030489&partnerID=40&md5=97c2be8975ba0f42fbc69fd45d2684f9

DOI: 10.1080/15562948.2015.1030489
ISSN: 15562948
Cited by: 5
Original Language: English