The Borders around Us: Forced Migration and the Politics of Border Control

Over the last decades, the global flow of international migrants has grown dramatically. In 2019, the number of migrants peaked at 271.6 million, an increase of 50.7 million since 2010 and of 97.8 million since 2000. Although Europe and North America were the most favored destinations for the majority of migrants in the 20th century, the destinations for international migrants have significantly diversified in the first two decades of the 21st century, with high numbers of migrants settling in every region of the world. To illustrate this global movement, Figure 1 provides an overview of migration trends by region of destination. Although northern America and Europe continue to receive a majority of migrants, their collective share has decreased from 56 percent in 2000 to 52 percent in 2019 (or 141 million migrants). Over the same period, northern Africa and western Asia reported the most significant increase. The number of migrants arriving in these regions more than doubled from 20.3 million in 2000 to 48.6 million in 2019, making these two regions the next largest migrant destinations behind North America and Europe. While northern African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were major sending sources of immigrants to Europe, this trend has been reversed as countries in western Asia and northern Europe have received significant numbers of unauthorizedmigrants,1 including Syrian refugees. In 2018, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan together hosted 5.2 million Syrian refugees or 77 percent of the Syrian refugee population around the world (Todd 2019). Among international migrants, many left as a result of forced migration (UNHCR 2019). In 2019, an unprecedented 70.8 million people escaped their hometowns, often fleeing for their lives. This population consists of 41.3 million internally displaced people, 25.9 million refugees, and 3.5 million asylum seekers (UNHCR 2020). The majority were forced to leave due to wars and local conflicts, climate change, and natural disasters, or a “well-founded fear of persecution” on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political views (UN General Assembly 1951). In light of these trends, this article addresses two related questions. First, which border policies do many countries in the global North adopt to cope with refugees? Second, which policies can facilitate refugee integration and self-sufficiency? According to the UNHCR (2020), about 37,000 people uproot their lives every day. This is the equivalent of one person every 2 seconds leaving his or her home with little hope of an eventual return and with few possessions but the clothes on their backs. From central