How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?

The estimated duration of forced displacement situations is a key parameter in defining an adequate response to the crisis. Where the crisis is short, humanitarian aid may suffice; when it lasts, development interventions are required. Using data f...

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Main Authors: Devictor, Xavier, Do, Quy-Toan
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26744506/many-years-refugees-exile
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25056
id okr-10986-25056
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-250562021-04-23T14:04:28Z How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile? Devictor, Xavier Do, Quy-Toan refugees internally displaced persons protracted situations UNHCR The estimated duration of forced displacement situations is a key parameter in defining an adequate response to the crisis. Where the crisis is short, humanitarian aid may suffice; when it lasts, development interventions are required. Using data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this paper proposes propose a new approach to estimate the mean and median durations of exile, and their variations over time. The analysis finds that people who were refugees at the end of 2015 have been in exile for an average duration of 10.3 years and a median duration of 4 years; the average duration of exile has varied between 10 and 15 years since the late 1990s. The number of people who are in protracted situations (over five years) has been steady at 5 million to 7 million since the mid-1990s, and currently stands at 6.6 million. For those people, the average duration of exile is as long as 21.2 years. All these estimates are very sensitive to two situations: Afghanistan, where the crisis has been ongoing since 1979 and increases all averages, and the Syrian Arab Republic, which is relatively recent and lowers the averages. 2016-09-13T15:08:53Z 2016-09-13T15:08:53Z 2016-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26744506/many-years-refugees-exile http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25056 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7810 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Middle East and North Africa Syrian Arab Republic
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic refugees
internally displaced persons
protracted situations
UNHCR
spellingShingle refugees
internally displaced persons
protracted situations
UNHCR
Devictor, Xavier
Do, Quy-Toan
How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?
geographic_facet Middle East and North Africa
Syrian Arab Republic
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7810
description The estimated duration of forced displacement situations is a key parameter in defining an adequate response to the crisis. Where the crisis is short, humanitarian aid may suffice; when it lasts, development interventions are required. Using data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this paper proposes propose a new approach to estimate the mean and median durations of exile, and their variations over time. The analysis finds that people who were refugees at the end of 2015 have been in exile for an average duration of 10.3 years and a median duration of 4 years; the average duration of exile has varied between 10 and 15 years since the late 1990s. The number of people who are in protracted situations (over five years) has been steady at 5 million to 7 million since the mid-1990s, and currently stands at 6.6 million. For those people, the average duration of exile is as long as 21.2 years. All these estimates are very sensitive to two situations: Afghanistan, where the crisis has been ongoing since 1979 and increases all averages, and the Syrian Arab Republic, which is relatively recent and lowers the averages.
format Working Paper
author Devictor, Xavier
Do, Quy-Toan
author_facet Devictor, Xavier
Do, Quy-Toan
author_sort Devictor, Xavier
title How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?
title_short How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?
title_full How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?
title_fullStr How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?
title_full_unstemmed How Many Years Have Refugees Been in Exile?
title_sort how many years have refugees been in exile?
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2016
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26744506/many-years-refugees-exile
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25056
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