Refugees and migration: A Theoretical Perspective
In the study of international movement the analysis of refugee flows, and particularly their determination has been divorced from concern with other forms of migration. To a considerable extent this reflects disciplinary interest. Migration specialists, mainly geographers, economists, sociologists, demographers political scientists, have concerned themselves with labor flows and settlement, and have steered clear of moves that seem unpredictable and are triggered by political events, specialists in international law, and some political scientists, in their studies of refugee flows have focused more in consequences than determination, causative theories of refugee movement are, therefore, lacking.
It is only recently that very much attention has been paid to the need to produce a theory of refugee movement, though there have been attempts, usually rooted in sociology, at producing theories of refugee integration and settlement. It is of course, possible to see elements of a refugee theory in some of the classic migration theories. For example, refugee movements are multi-step ( Ravenstein, 1885 ), and refugees do have to surmount intervening obstacles ( Lee, 1966 ) . Petersen’s ( 1958 ) general typology of migration recognizes two basic refugee types, forced and impelled, though this grossly oversimplifies the process since refugee flows are immensely varied in both scale ( geographical and volume ) and time ( short and sharp, long drawn out ). With little theoretical basis having been developed, much of the writing on refugee administration ( Steins and Tomasi, 1981). One of the first attempt to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of the determinants of refugee flows was that of Kunz( 1973 ). He developed a model based on the distinction between “anticipatory” and “acute” refugee movements. The anticipatory refugee prepared for the move, has a clear knowledge of destination and permission to stay : he is not easy to distinguish from a voluntary migrant except that the push is usually more important than the pull. This type of movement Kunz refers to as push-permit. For the acute refugee the push motive is overwhelming, there is no certainly as to destination and the refugee may at first assume that the move is temporary. Kunz hypothesized three types of acute refugee sub-models, push- pressure-plunge ( moving from the country of immediate asylum to a third country for permanent settlement), push- pressure- stay ( in the country of asylum ) . push- pressure- return.