World Refugee Day 2021
The United Nations General Assembly introduced World Refugee Day in 2001. Before 2001, June 20th was celebrated as African Refugee Day, introduced in 1975. This day was established in 1975 by the then Organization for African Unity, now called the African Union. Today, the two days coincide to honor refugees around the world. It celebrates the dignity of the forcibly displaced. [1] Who is a refugee? According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee...
Recent Research from Across the Continent
The African Human Mobility Review published a series of thought-provoking articles in April 2021 [1]. Interestingly three of the five articles in the edition of the AHMR focus on migrant women. To get an idea of what the AHMR is consider the following: The African Human Mobility Review (AHMR) is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed on-line journal created to encourage and facilitate the study of all aspects (socio-economic, political, legislative and developmental) of human mobility...
Welcome to Our New Researcher
SIHMA has the pleasure to announce the appointment of a new junior researcher, Muluh Momasoh, at SIHMA who started on Monday 19 April 2021. As SIHMA engages in research and publishes reports, working papers and briefs, our journal (AHMR[1]) and shorter researched blog posts in our Blog on the Move [2], we are excited to be bolstering our research capacity. SIHMA strives to fulfil our mission ‘to conduct and disseminate research that contributes to the understanding of human...
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MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION - Moving towards greater INCLUSION AND SOCIAL COHESION
How are we as a society doing in terms of inclusion, unity, and integration? How are people on the move treated within communities and while on the move? In some ways society is more accepting, inclusive, and understanding than it has been in previous years. The pandemic has shaken the foundations of existence across the world and exposed our fragility. We have a new appreciation for humanity, human dignity and for life itself. Yet in the midst of...
The advocates' migration brief - accessing Asylum
Whenever someone flees their country due to persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion or flees due to war, violence or events seriously disturbing to public order they should be able to apply for refugee status in the country they flee to. Someone applying for refugee status is an asylum seeker. Regrettably at some stages in South Africa’s recent history there have been and to a lesser extent still are...
Missing Migrants and IOM Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) webinar
Did you know migrants are facing many challenges including locating their loved ones who have gone missing? There are many migrants traveling with little to no documentation. Without documentation it is hard to find these individuals and locate loved ones if they go missing. Migrants are dying in the sea, in deserts (especially in the Sahara in the African Context (1)) and at various unofficial border posts because of the increase in monitoring and border policing...
