MIGRATION AND REFUGEE CRISIS PROBLEM
Sena Gülşen tarafından
The migration and refugee crisis has become one of the deepest and most multifaceted problems of the modern world; despite the passage of years, it remains a global issue for which the international community has failed to produce a lasting solution. The roots of this crisis actually extend not only to recent years, but to earlier periods. The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, the large-scale migration movements that began after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the conflicts in various parts of Africa constituted the first major waves of global migration. However, the problem reached a historical threshold in terms of both numbers and visibility with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Since 2011, millions of Syrians have been forced to flee bombardments, political oppression, and economic collapse; the closest countries, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, initially bore almost the entire burden. Turkey quickly became the country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world, and this situation has had effects not only on housing, but also on a wide range of areas including education, health, employment, rents, and social integration. During the same period, Jordan and Lebanon accepted an extraordinary number of refugees relative to their populations, exacerbating infrastructure deficiencies, water and electricity crises, and domestic political sensitivities.
The next phase of the crisis was shaped by the large wave of migration towards Europe between 2014 and 2016. Dangerous journeys in small boats across the Mediterranean resulted in thousands of deaths; the coasts of Greece and Italy were subjected to extraordinary congestion. With the opening of the Balkan migration route in the summer of 2015, tens of thousands attempted to reach Germany via Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and Austria; Germany's decision to "open its doors" created both great solidarity and great division within Europe. While some countries wanted to share responsibility, many countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, closed their borders, erected barbed wire fences, and defined migration as a national security issue. This situation highlighted the limited capacity of the European Union to produce common policies.
After 2020, migration and refugee movements were no longer limited to the Middle East; The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, the economic collapse in Venezuela, the coup in Myanmar, and the increasing terrorism and conflicts in Africa's Sahel region have triggered new waves of migration. These new waves have increased pressure both regionally and globally, and have been seen as a "harbinger of new crises," especially for Europe.
All these processes have affected countries in very different ways. In receiving countries, economic and social impacts such as increased population density, rising rents, competition in the job market, and social integration problems have been observed; while in some countries refugees are seen as cheap labor, in others, there is a perception of loss of rights. Conversely, in countries sending migrants, problems such as brain drain, loss of workforce, family disintegration, and cultural erosion have come to the forefront. The strengthening of anti-immigrant political movements, increased social divisions, and rising security concerns in developed countries are also among the political impacts of the crisis.
The convergence of all these complex processes shows why the migration and refugee crisis remains unresolved: disagreements over "burden sharing" between countries persist, the root causes of migration—war, poverty, authoritarian regimes, and climate change—have not disappeared, and international law is proving inadequate in the face of the speed and scale of modern migration movements. Therefore, the migration and refugee crisis is not merely a humanitarian issue; it remains a chronic international problem with political, economic, and social impacts, affecting each country in different ways and continuing to deepen.
https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/refugees
https://www.un.org/en/sc360/sc9905-United-Nations-High-Commissioner-for-Refugees-28-Apr-2025
https://apnews.com/article/ac5a0784474d6ce340a5ba605ee3edce
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.01955
https://www.euaa.europa.eu/asylum-report-2024/11-global-trends-international-protection
Sena Gülşen
