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Changing Patterns of Internal Displacement: The Art of Figure Skating

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Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration

Part of the book series: International Studies in Population ((ISIP,volume 13))

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Abstract

Forced displacement has reached unprecedented levels. Appeals to improve understanding of and assistance to those displaced and the states hosting them have grown louder. For nearly two decades, the International Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has led efforts to profile internally displaced persons (IDPs), including size and causes of displacement. Despite increasing advocacy and efforts by IDMC and others to compile a comprehensive dataset on IDPs, our knowledge remains imprecise and often only represents the tip of the iceberg. Developing responses, however, relies on a nuanced knowledge of displacement situations. This chapter provides a snapshot of the current understanding of internal displacement, with a special focus on urban displacement. It illustrates where advances in methodology and enumeration have been made, where there are persistent gaps and seemingly insurmountable challenges. It makes a case for the utility of a demography lens in order to connect the dots of existing data sources and fill the gaps in order to obtain a more complete understanding of internal displacement, such as population size and composition as well as the causes and consequences of spatial and temporal changes due to birth, death, settlement, on- migration, and/or returning home. Demographic extrapolation techniques might be particularly useful for hard-to-reach populations.

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Matt Wilkinson for helpful comments and edits to this chapter

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Susanne Schmeidl & Kaitlyn Hedditch

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  1. Susanne Schmeidl
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  2. Kaitlyn Hedditch
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Correspondence to Susanne Schmeidl .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Population & Migration Research Centre Campus North Terrace, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Graeme Hugo

  2. Department of Demography, University of Tehran and National Institute of Population Research, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi

  3. Geography and Environmental Studies, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA

    Ellen Percy Kraly

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Schmeidl, S., Hedditch, K. (2018). Changing Patterns of Internal Displacement: The Art of Figure Skating. In: Hugo, G., Abbasi-Shavazi, M., Kraly, E. (eds) Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration. International Studies in Population, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67147-5_9

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