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Migration is the movement of people away from their usual place of residence, either within a country or across international borders. Migration may be temporary or permanent and may occur for economic, political, familial, educational, environmental, military, or other reasons.[1]
Imperialism and colonialism have been major historical causes of migration and displacement. Under capitalism, migration is strongly influenced by the unequal distribution of employment, wealth, land, housing, productive development, and political power. Colonialism, imperialism, military intervention, economic dependency, and the international division of labor have historically created conditions which encourage or compel people to leave their homes while simultaneously creating demand for migrant labor power elsewhere. Migration should therefore be understood not only as a collection of individual decisions, but as a social process shaped by class relations, unequal development, colonial history, imperialism, and the structure of the capitalist world economy.[2]
As summarized in the Exposition of the Principles of Juche Idea:
“There are many people who live in alien countries, missing their own country. Why, then? This is because of colonialism.”
Terminology[edit | edit source]
Migration is a broad category encompassing several different forms of human movement. Terms such as migrant, immigrant, emigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, internally displaced person, exile, and defector describe different aspects of a person's movement, legal status, or political circumstances. These categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive.[3]
Migrant[edit | edit source]
A migrant is, in broad usage, a person who moves away from their usual place of residence, either within the same country or across an international border.[4] A migrant may move for employment, education, family, safety, political reasons, environmental reasons, or a combination of different circumstances. Refugees, immigrants, emigrants, and many displaced people may therefore also be migrants in the broader sense.
Immigration and emigration[edit | edit source]
Immigration and emigration describe international migration from opposite perspectives. An immigrant is a person viewed from the perspective of the country or territory into which they have moved. An emigrant is a person viewed from the perspective of the country or territory they have left.[5] Someone moving from one country to another can therefore simultaneously be an emigrant from their country of origin and an immigrant in their country of destination.
Refugee[edit | edit source]
A refugee is a person who has crossed an international border and qualifies for protection under applicable refugee law. The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol form the principal international framework concerning refugee status. The Convention defines a refugee, in part, as a person outside their country who possesses a well-founded fear of persecution on specified grounds and is unable or unwilling to obtain the protection of that country.[6] The Convention identifies persecution based upon race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Regional refugee agreements have subsequently expanded protection under some circumstances. A refugee may be described as a migrant in the broad sense, but not every migrant is a refugee.
Asylum seeker[edit | edit source]
An asylum seeker is a person seeking international protection whose claim has not necessarily received a final determination.[7] An asylum seeker may subsequently be recognized as a refugee or receive another form of protection depending upon the applicable law and circumstances.
International refugee law also recognizes the principle of non-refoulement, under which refugees must not be returned to territories where their life or freedom would face serious threats.[8]
Internally displaced person[edit | edit source]
An internally displaced person (IDP) is a person who has been forced or obliged to leave their home while remaining within the internationally recognized borders of their country.[9] Internal displacement may result from armed conflict, generalized violence, violations of human rights, dictatorship, natural disasters, human-made disasters, or other dangerous circumstances. Someone may therefore experience forced migration without being considered a refugee because they have not crossed an international border.
Exile[edit | edit source]
Exile generally refers to prolonged or forced separation from one's homeland, particularly for political reasons. A person may enter exile because they have been expelled, because remaining in their country has become unsafe, or because returning after departure could expose them to persecution, imprisonment, political violence, or other serious dangers. Exile is not necessarily an exclusive legal category. A political exile may simultaneously be an emigrant, immigrant, asylum seeker, or refugee.[10]
Defector[edit | edit source]
A defector is a person who abandons allegiance to a state, political organization, military force, intelligence organization, or political camp, particularly when transferring their allegiance or cooperation to an opposing state or organization. Unlike immigrant and emigrant, the term principally describes a political relationship rather than merely the direction of migration. Unlike refugee, defector is not itself a refugee status established by international refugee law. A person described as a defector may therefore simultaneously be an emigrant, immigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, or exile. The term acquired particular political significance during the Cold War, when movement between opposing political systems became closely connected to propaganda, intelligence activity, and ideological competition.[11]
Causes of migration[edit | edit source]
There is no single cause of migration. People migrate under different combinations of material, political, social, environmental, and personal circumstances.
Major causes of migration include:
- Employment and wages
- Education
- Family reunification
- Housing and access to land
- Poverty and economic insecurity
- Political persecution
- Dictatorship and state repression
- War and military occupation
- Coups and political instability
- Famine and food insecurity
- Environmental disasters
- Climate change
- Land dispossession
- Foreign intervention
- Economic sanctions
- Unequal development
- Personal or family circumstances
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ https://www.iom.int/key-migration-terms
- ↑ “Imperialism has evolved and changed since Lenin's time, and one of its newer modes of appropriation, exploitation, and oppression is the forced migration of tens of millions of workers to the imperialist heartlands. This process may have been limited mainly to Ireland in the 19th century (as we discussed before), and to peripheral parts of Europe in the first years of the present century, because of the cost of long-distance transportation and the immaturity of this new phenomenon of imperialism. Lenin was certainly aware of the phenomenon and its growing importance, and he did not confuse it with the older forms of labor migration which had characterized the period of developing capitalism. In his earlier writings Lenin had indeed provided a thorough analysis of labor migration under pre-imperialist conditions, and had concluded, correctly, that its effects were generally progressive. This was capitalism's era of rapid growth; migration to areas of expanding employment and higher wages was characteristic of the period; and the advanced areas, among them the United States, were able to absorb the immigrants fully into a burgeoning labor force. The result was national assimilation. It was part of a 'break-down of all national barriers by capitalism', and was therefore 'inevitable and progressive'.25 But all this changed when capitalism entered the era of imperialism, the era of 'the oppression of nations on a new historical basis. It is clear that Lenin came to view the new era as one in which the conditions for national assimilation were disappearing, to be replaced by increased national oppression 'both in the colonies and at home'.27 One comment which he made just a few days before the October Revolution, during a discussion of the new Bolshevik party program, is particularly revealing:
'[Comrade Sokolnikov] proposes to add the phrase "... the labor of unskilled foreign workers imported from backward countries". This addition is valuable and necessary. The exploitation of worse paid labor from backward countries is particularly characteristic of imperialism. On this exploitation rests, to a certain degree, the parasitism of rich imperialist countries which bribe a part of their workers with higher wages while shamelessly and unrestrainedly exploiting the labor of "cheap" foreign workers. The words "worse paid" should be added and also the words "and frequently deprived of rights"; for the exploiters in "civilized" countries always take advantage of the fact that the imported foreign workers have no rights.'28”
J. M. Blaut (1987). The National Question: Decolonizing the Theory of Nationalism. https://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/Blaut/national_question.htm. - ↑ https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf
- ↑ https://www.un.org/en/fight-racism/vulnerable-groups/migrants
- ↑ https://www.iom.int/key-migration-terms
- ↑ https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/overview/1951-refugee-convention
- ↑ https://help.unhcr.org/global/asylum-and-refugee-status/
- ↑ https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/who-we-protect/refugees
- ↑ https://wmr-educatorstoolkit.iom.int/glossary
- ↑ Exile and Banishment. (n.d.) Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014. (1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014). Retrieved August 10 2026 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Exile+and+Banishment
- ↑ defector. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011). Retrieved August 10 2026 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/defector