Asylum seeker
Someone who has made a claim that he or she is a refugee, and is waiting for that claim to be accepted or rejected. The term contains no presumption either way – it simply describes the fact that someone has lodged the claim. Some asylum seekers will be recognized to be refugees and others will not.
Detention
Restriction on freedom of movement through enforced confinement of an individual by government authorities. There are two types of detention: criminal detention, having as a purpose punishment for the committed crime; and administrative detention, guaranteeing that another administrative measure such as expulsion can be implemented. In many states irregular migrants are subjected to administrative detention, as they do not comply with migration laws. In many states a person may be detained pending a decision on refugee status or on admission or removal from a state.
Economic Migration
Economic migration is often used interchangeably with the term labour migration; however, this term has a wider sense and can encompass migration for the purposes of improving quality of life in social and economic terms. Economic migration can be both regular and irregular.
Expulsion
An act by an authority of the state with the intention and with the effect of securing the removal of persons against their will from the territory of that state.
Family reunification
Process whereby family members separated through forced or voluntary migration are brought together again, whether in the country of origin or another country. When the family is reunited in a country that is not their own, it often implies a degree of state discretion over admission.
Integration
Integration is the process by which migrants and refugees are accepted in society. Integration relies on finding a balance between respecting the original cultural values and identities of migrants and refugees and a creating sense of belonging for newcomers (based on an acceptance of the core values and institutions of the host community or country). The process of integration concerns all aspects of life in a society and both the newcomers and the host community play important roles.
Irregular migrant
The term irregular migrant is used to describe someone who does not hold the required legal status or travel documents to enter or remain in a country. For example, by entering a country without a valid passport or travel document, or by failing to fulfill administrative requirements for entering or leaving a country.
Labour Migration
Labour migration applies to people moving for the purposes of employment. Labour migration policies apply strict economic criteria based on the labour requirements of the country concerned. In the EU an increasing number of countries are turning to points based immigration policies in order to encourage the supply of highly skilled labour only. In addition, some countries are now trying to restrict the inflow of lower skilled labour from non EU countries.
Migrant
The term migrant is usually describes someone who makes a free decision to move to another region or country, often to better material or social conditions and improve prospects for themselves and their families. People also migrate for many other reasons.
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship or nationality by someone who was not a citizen or national of that country at birth.
Non-refoulement
Non-refoulement is a key principle in international refugee law, that concerns the protection of refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.
Overstay
To remain in a country beyond the period for which entry was granted.
Refugee
The 1951 Refugee Convention describes refugees as people who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence, and have ‘’a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, and are unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country’’. People fleeing conflicts or generalized violence are also generally considered as refugees. They have no protection from their own state – indeed it is often their own government that is threatening to persecute them.
Regularization
A process by which a country allows persons in an irregular situation to obtain legal status in the country.
Resettlement
Refugees are not always able to return safely home or to remain in the country where they received asylum, usually because they would face continued persecution. In such circumstances, UNHCR attempts to resettle them in safe third countries. With voluntary repatriation and local integration, resettlement is one of the three long-term solutions for refugees. Through resettlement, refugees gain legal protection – residency and often eventually citizenship – from governments who agree, on a case-by-case basis, to receive them.
Smuggling
A form of migrant movement that is done with the agreement of the migrant and usually with payment from the migrant for the smuggling services. Smuggling can be exploitative and dangerous, including fatal, but is not coercive in the sense of trafficking.
Stateless people
A person who is not considered a national of any state by operation of its laws is stateless.
Trafficking
Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons by means of threat, use of force or other forms of coercion. The most common forms of trafficking are for sexual exploitation, child trafficking, and trafficking for labour exploitation. Trafficking violates human rights and includes abduction, fraud, deception, and the abuse of power or the abuse of someone in a vulnerable position.
Unaccompanied minor
Unaccompanied minors are girls and boys under 18 years of age, of foreign origin, who are separated from both parents and are not being cared for by an adult who by law or by custom is responsible for doing so. Unaccompanied minors can be either refugees, asylum seekers or migrants. Unaccompanied children are especially vulnerable to exploitation. The rights of unaccompanied minors are protected by the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of Children.
Voluntary return
Return of persons to their country of origin on the basis of freely expressed willingness to go back.
