The concept of refugee is at once a legal, political, cultural and sociological category. As a consequence, the attribution or label refugee carries with it not only common-sense cultural connotations and legal specificity, but also a great deal of...

The term environmental refugee was coined in the late 1980s by the United Nations Environment Programme and refers to people who are forced to leave their community of origin because the land can no longer support them. Environmental factors such as...

Refugees According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a "refugee" is an individual who owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social...

The 1951 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as a person who has a well founded fear of persecution by reason of one of five grounds (race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular...

any uprooted, homeless, involuntary migrant who has crossed a frontier and no longer possesses the protection of his former government. Prior to the 19th century the movement from one country to another did not require passports and visas; the right to...

In 1863, the artist George Caleb Bingham captured the upheaval, uncertainty, and injustice that refugees faced during the Civil War in his painting General Order 11. This painting depicts civilians in four Missouri counties who refused to sign loyalty...

international office opened by the League of Nations in 1931 to complete the work of Fridtjof Nansen, who had been the League of Nations' high commissioner for refugees from 1921 until his death in 1930. The organization was given a mandate to solve...

Person involuntarily displaced from his or her homeland. Until the late 19th century and the emergence of fixed and closed national boundaries, refugees were always absorbed by neighbouring countries. Later, immigration restrictions and increasing...

A person migrating from one country to another to improve economic prospects but often posing as a person fleeing from political persecution. An increasing European phenomenon after the fall of communism and conflict in the...

According to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person...