Bogumil Terminski distinguishes two general categories of displacement: • Displacement of risk: mostly conflict-induced displacement, deportations and disaster-induced displacement. • Displacement of adaptation: associated with voluntary migration, development-induced displacement and environmentally induced displacement.
Natural causes Forced displacement may directly result from
natural disasters and indirectly from the subsequent impact on
infrastructure, food and water access, and local/regional economies. Displacement may be temporary or permanent, depending on the scope of the disaster and the area's recovery capabilities.
Climate change is increasing the frequency of major natural disasters, possibly placing a greater number of populations in situations of forced displacement. Also
crop failures due to
blight and/or
pests fall within this category by affecting people's access to food. Additionally, the term
environmental refugee represents people who are forced to leave their traditional habitat because of environmental factors which negatively impact their livelihood, or even environmental disruption i.e. biological, physical or chemical change in ecosystem. Migration can also occur as a result of slow-onset
climate change, such as
desertification or
sea-level rise, of deforestation or
land degradation.
Examples of forced displacement caused by natural disasters •
January 2025 Southern California wildfires: LA Fires displacing approximately 200,000 people. •
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: Resulting from a 9.1 earthquake off the coast of North Sumatra, the Indian Ocean Tsunami claimed over 227,898 lives, heavily damaging coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean. As a result, over 1.7 million people were displaced, mostly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. •
Hurricane Katrina (2005): Striking New Orleans, Louisiana, in late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina inflicted approximately US$125 billion in damages, standing as one of the costliest storms in United States history. As a result of the damage inflicted by Katrina, over one million people were internally displaced. One month after the disaster, over 600,000 remained displaced. Immediately following the disaster, New Orleans lost approximately half of its population, with many residents displaced to cities such as Houston, Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Atlanta. According to numerous studies, displacement disproportionally impacted Louisiana's poorer populations, specifically African Americans. •
2011 East Africa drought: Failed rains in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia led to high livestock and crop losses, driving majority pastoralist populations to surrounding areas in search of accessible food and water. In addition to seeking food and water, local populations' migration was motivated by an inability to maintain traditional lifestyles.
Examples of forced displacement caused by criminal activity • Displacement in
Mexico due to
cartel violence: Throughout Mexico, drug cartel, paramilitary, and self-defense group violence drives internal and external displacement. Contributing factors include extortion, territorial disputes, and forced gang recruitment, resulting in some estimates of approximately 500,000 people displaced annually. • Displacement in
Colombia due to conflict and drug-related violence: According to researchers Mojica and Eugenia, Medellín, Colombia around 2013 exemplified crime and violence-induced forced displacement, standing as one of the most popular destinations for
IDPs while also producing IDPs of its own. Rural citizens fled from organized criminal violence, with the majority pointing to direct threats as the main driving force, settling in Medellín in pursuit of safety and greater opportunity. Within Medellín, various armed groups battled for territorial control, forcing perceived opponents from their homes and pressuring residents to abandon their livelihoods, among other methods. All in all, criminal violence forced Colombians to abandon their possessions, way of life, and social ties in pursuit of safety.
Examples of forced displacement caused by political conflict • During the
Armenian Genocide (1915), 1.5 million Armenians were displaced in
death marches from Ottoman-controlled
Western Armenia to Syria, Palestine, and elsewhere •
1949–1956 Palestinian exodus •
1950-1951 exodus of Turks from Bulgaria: according to some, caused because the Turkish support of the USA during the
Korean War. Communist ideologies, Islamophobia and Anti-Turkism also played a role. •
Jewish exodus from the Muslim world •
Vietnam War: Throughout the Vietnam War and in the years preceding it, many populations were forced out of Vietnam and the surrounding countries as a result of armed conflict and/or persecution by their governments, such as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This event is referred to as the
Indochina refugee crisis, with millions displaced across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. •
Salvadoran Civil War: Throughout and after the 12-year conflict between the Salvadoran government and the
FMLN, Salvadorans faced forced displacement as a result of combat, persecution, and deteriorating quality of life/access to socioeconomic opportunities. Overall, one in four Salvadorans were internally and externally displaced (over one million people). •
2021 Myanmar coup d'état: Since the coup d’état of 1 February 2021, the Burmese military's ascendancy into power has resulted in widespread chaos and violence, aggravated by the refusal of large sections of the public to accept a military regime given the country's experiences during the second half of the 20th and early years of the 21st century. As a result, many in the public sector have initiated strikes, and the country has seen elevated levels of forced displacement, both internally displaced persons (IDPs) (208,000 since 1 February 2021) and refugees fleeing abroad (an estimated 22,000 since 1 February 2021). The particular political conflict causing the displacement has been flagged as symptomatic of that of a state on the brink of collapse. Two key indicators of this that have been highlighted are firstly, that levels of security have been severely reduced to the point where citizens are no longer protected from violence by the state; and secondly, goods and services are not being reliably supplied to citizens either by the ousted government or by the new military leadership, primarily as a result of the instability created and the strikes triggered. These internal problems are further reflected by the withdrawal of international recognition by both governmental and non-governmental bodies. •
Gaza Strip evacuations, since the start of the
Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip on 27 October 2023, over 85% of the population has been displaced. •
2023 Expulsion of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians: Azerbaijan launched a
military offensive in September 2023 on the Armenian-populated region of
Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), following a
ten-month military siege, involving the sabotage of public infrastructure and the blockade of essential supplies, which caused a humanitarian crisis. Before the
Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, the region had an estimated population of 150,000 which decreased in the aftermath of the war. Faced with extreme
anti-Armenian sentiment and threats of violence, over 100,000 ethnic Armenians — representing 99% of the remaining population of Nagorno-Karabakh, —
fled to Armenia, triggering a refugee crisis. Observers, including international leaders and human rights organizations, have characterized the displacement as
ethnic cleansing or a
crime against humanity. Armenia has struggled to absorb and support the incoming refugees, facing acute challenges in funding, housing, and long-term integration for those uprooted.
Examples of forced displacement caused by human-made environmental disasters •
2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires: Although human-made fires are a normal part of Amazonian agriculture, the 2019 dry season saw an internationally noted increase in their rate of occurrence. The rapidly spreading fires, combined with efforts from agricultural and logging companies, has forced Brazil's indigenous populations off their native lands. •
Chernobyl disaster: A nuclear meltdown on April 26, 1986, near
Pripyat, Ukraine contaminated the city and surrounding areas with harmful levels of radiation, forcing the displacement of over 100,000 people. •
Great Famine of Ireland: Between 1845 and 1849, potato blight, exacerbated by policy decisions and mismanagement by the U.K. government, caused millions of Irish people, largely potato-dependent tenant farmers, to starve or eventually flee the country. Over one million perished from subsequent famine and disease, and another million fled the country, reducing the overall Irish population by at least a quarter.
Other human-made displacement •
Human trafficking/
smuggling: Migrants displaced through deception or coercion with purpose of their exploitation fall under this category. Due to its clandestine nature, the data on such type of forced migration are limited. A disparity also exists between the data for male trafficking (such as for labor in agriculture, construction etc.) and female trafficking (such as for sex work or domestic service), with more data available for males. The
International Labour Organization considers trafficking an offense against labor protection, denying companies from leveraging migrants as a labor resource. ILO's Multilateral Framework includes principle no. 11, recommending that "Governments should formulate and implement, in consultation with the social partners, measures to prevent abusive practices, migrant smuggling and people trafficking; they should also work towards preventing irregular labor migration." •
Slavery: Historically,
slavery has led to the displacement of individuals for
forced labor, with the
Middle Passage of the 15th through 19th century
Atlantic slave trade standing as a notable example. Of the 20 million Africans captured for the trade, half died in their forced march to the African coast, and another ten to twenty percent died on slave ships carrying them from Africa to the Americas. •
Ethnic cleansing: The systematic removal of ethnic or religious groups from a territory with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous. Examples include the Catholic removal of
Salzburg Protestants, the removal of Jewish people during the
Holocaust, and the deportation of North American indigenous peoples (e.g.,
Trail of Tears). • Suppressing political opposition: For example, the
forced settlements in the Soviet Union and
population transfer in the Soviet Union including
deportation of the Crimean Tatars,
deportation of the Chechens and Ingush,
deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union,
deportation of the Soviet Greeks, and
deportations of the Ingrian Finns • Aligning ethnic composition with artificial political border: For example
flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950),
Polish population transfers (1944–1946), and
Operation Vistula •
Colonization: For example, the British governments transportation of
Convicts in Australia,
American Colonization Society and others' attempt to create a country for
African Americans in
Africa as
Liberia, Japanese settlers in
Manchukuo following
Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and the Chinese military settlement of
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in
Xinjiang. • Forced displacement created by
anti-trans and
anti-LGBT laws.
Multiple and interacting drivers Recent research highlights that displacement is increasingly driven by a “
polycrisis”,in which conflict, climate change and economic shocks interact and reinforce each other, creating complex and protracted dynamics, particularly in Africa, which hosts around 45 million displaced people (approximately 43% of the global total). Examples of displacement in polycrisis contexts include parts of the
Sahel and the
Horn of Africa, where armed conflict, climate variability (including drought), and economic instability interact to drive large-scale and often protracted displacement. In these regions, overlapping crises can erode livelihoods, weaken state capacity, and increase vulnerability, making displacement both more likely and more difficult to resolve. == Conditions faced by displaced persons ==