THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN MOBILITY AND MIGRATION IN THE 21 st CENTURY Kisuke NDIKU (original) (raw)

INTRODUCTION In the last twenty years, the world has experienced an unprecedented shift in the human displacement, mobility, and migration space. This has been caused by the unrelenting humanitarian displacement whose root causes are mainly forced situations, conflict, and natural disasters, in that order. This is over and above the personal choice and pursuit of one's individual life dreams. Another contributor to the shift in the human displacement, mobility, and migration space has been the spike in its polarization occurring especially in societies of receiving, destination countries. Polarization in its nature is a complex phenomenon, and with respect to human displacement, mobility, and migration space, it is not any different. Polarization is informed by misinformation, disinformation, lack of awareness, fear, psycho-social factors on the one hand. On the other, it is informed by political cleavage and deviations by governance that uses methods and practices outside a rights-based perspective in the management and execution of law and policy related to human displacement, mobility, and migration. Polarization, therefore, keeps mutating and evolving. On this account, the human displacement, mobility, and migration space is bound to suffer for lack of justice, equity, and denied rights to those for whom these are due when they are displaced or migrate. Human Mobility and Migration in Transition Notwithstanding, key guiding UN Conventions on human displacement, mobility, and migration coupled with principled policies of individual country commitments, the management of human displacement, mobility, and migration has transcended from a normal process to a commercial and political process. It has become commercial due to human trafficking, abduction/ransoms, benefits of war and conflict, and also due to the willingness of people on the move to pay their way out from their country of origin, country of passage, to country of destination. Human displacement, mobility, and migration have become political due to the huge numbers of people on the move across continents, impacting the demographics and service delivery balance in transit, receiving, and countries of destination. This has been the case and experience of the South American situation between Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile among others 1. This has also been observed in SouthEastern Asia and the Australia-Oceania Region. It has most recently been on the increase in the experience of Europe. Overall, since 2010-2020, the trends, patterns, and flows of human mobility whatever the cause have increased in intensity, diversity, composition, and direction. These factors are noted in human displacement, mobility, and migration at the cross-border level (between two countries), interregional (within a continental region), and intraregional levels (between two or more continental regions) 2. From the point of view of origin, receiving, and destination, human mobility, and migration affect all countries of the world, industrialized as countries of origin, receiving, and destination; just as much as developing countries which are also countries of origin, receiving, and destination.