CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTS
November, 1996 |
People Who Move: New Focus for Reproductive Health Care Today millions of people are moving—some from rural to urban areas, others across national borders, some in search of opportunities and others fleeing disorder and danger at home, seeking refuge wherever possible. Clustered on the margins of cities or culturally isolated within them, housed in camps that were intended to be temporary, or without homes at all, migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons are among society's most vulnerable people. Although estimates of the total number of rural-to-urban migrants in the world are uncertain, perhaps about 16 million people migrate each year from rural to urban areas of developing countries, excluding China. This figure is derived from a recent United Nations assessment of the percentage contribution to urban growth of migration plus reclassification of territory from rural to urban status in 27 developing countries in the 1980s (288). The estimate of 16 million by Population Reports assumes that this percentage held true for the developing world as a whole and continued into the 1990s. Also, an estimated 2 to 4 million people migrate internationally each year (235). And estimated 125 million people or more, about one in every 50 people, are living outside their country of birth. In addition, some 18 million people, almost all in developing countries, have fled their home countries. About 15 million are formally recognized as refugees. An estimated 20 million more are considered to be internally displaced persons: they have fled their homes but remain within their own countries (322). (For definitions of migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons, see sidebar, Comparing Migrants, Refugees, and Internally Displaced Persons). |