Defining ‘forced migration’ in Burma

Abstract

Most Burmese people fleeing their homes do so for a combination of reasons. The root causes for leaving, however,determine which ‘category’ they belong to: ‘internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) or ‘economic migrants’. There issome discussion as to whether people leaving their homes due to exhaustion of livelihoods options are IDPsaccording to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement1 – or not. Ashley South and Andrew Bosson presenttheir views below.By analogy, this debate can be extended to Burmese people in exile. Are Burmese people outside refugee camps‘economic migrants’ or ‘self-settled refugees’? The article ‘Invisible in Thailand’ (pp31-33) sheds more light on this.