# Global Refugee
## The intrepid wanderer of the world : data analysis of refugee status
> Ying Ying Lee
> Date: 06 Dec, 2018
> Contact: yingying.lee025@gmail.com [color=#778BB8]
## Abstruct
Refugee crisis is a complicated and contentious issue including multiple political and racial factors. This report will probe into the pivotal impacts of media and technology and provide a revolutionary insight through analyzing the significant role of the internet, people's attitude towards Muslim, and how politic affects refugee allocation. Data was collected from public platform of UNHCR and be visualized after preprocessing.
Since 2010, a series of issues involving race and regime have sparked waves of protests and demonstrations across Middle East and North Africa. Without legal restraint, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can hardly reach a consensus among countries. However, with the power and potential of data analysis, it's possible to accelerate resettlement procedure and alleviate fundamental obstacle in areas where traditional tools can have less influence. After all ,data turns questions into real science.
## Description of Refugee
### **The definition of a refugee.**
Refugee is defined and protected in The 1951 Refugee Convention as:
“Someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
By the end of 2017, there were ++25.4 million++ refugee men, women and children registered across the world.
### **Where do refugees come from?**
#### 2000 - 2017
**Total number of the top five countries**
`According to numbers of applicants during year`
* Afghanistan — 1,528,960 applicants
* Syria — 1,257,291 applicants
* Iraq — 1,232,834 applicants
* Congo — 809,789 applicants
* Serbia and Kosovo — 721,205 applicants
#### Mid 2017
**Total number of the top five countries**
`According to numbers of total refugees and people in refugee-like situations`
* Syria — 5,980,270 refugees
* Afghanistan — 2,600,507 refugees
* South Sudan — 1,961,817 refugees
* Somalia — 989,561 refugees
* Sudan — 680,099 refugees
#### Total Refugee and people in refugee-like situations
**The top five countries take up 66.1% of the total number!**
Refugee and refugee-liked people from the top five countries **`12,212,254`**
The total number of refugee and refugee-liked people **`18,473,853`**
**Top sixth to tenth are countries: Congo, Myanmar, Central African Rep., Eritrea,and Burundi**
**The top ten countries take up 79.7% of the total number!**
Refugee and refugee-liked people from the top ten countries **`14,722,413`**
The total number of refugee and refugee-liked people **`18,473,853`**
**Who are the migrants? Why they come? What it means for Europe?**
The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, says there are more people displaced by conflict in the world today than at any point since the second world war.
This is true: an estimated ++66 million people++ are currently displaced, either within their home countries or abroad. But 86% of these remain in the developing world, not in wealthy regions such as Europe. Despite recent conflicts, according to Professor Hein de Haas[^first], refugees account for around 0.3% of the world’s population; a small and relatively stable proportion. ++The problem is resources and policy, not overwhelming numbers.++
**Note** : `The number of applicants in Asia is higher than in other continents after 2012. It is most likely because o the Arab Spring.`
**Total applied number from 2000 to 2017 by continent**
```r=
Region TotalApply Million
<fct> <dbl> <dbl>
1 Asia 8199576 8.20
2 Africa 6342497 6.34
3 Europe 2619976 2.62
4 Americas 1642035 1.64
5 Unknown 1059909 1.06
6 Oceania 16370 0.016
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Total 19880363 19.88
```
**Note** : `The gap application number between Asia and Africa from 2000 to 2017 is 1,857,079, mostly from the surged number of applicants in 2015 and 2016.`
## Destination of Refugee
#### 2000-2017
**Note** : `The number of pending people in Africa has decreased sharply in 2016, which also includes the number of rejected people.`
**South Africa, America, Germany, Turkey and France are the top five biggest migrant destinations**
`According to total pending number from 2000 to 2017`
**Canada`(615236)`, Austria`(596432)`, Sweden`(594595)`, United Kingdom`(588256)`, Greece`(449754)` rank top six to ten**
```r=
Country of Asylum Total Application
<chr> <dbl>
1 South Africa 4536424
2 America 3788850
3 Germany 2393513
4 Turkey 720874
5 France 713260
```
**The top five asylum countries in 2017**
```r=
Country of Asylum Total Application
<chr> <dbl>
1 America 265067
2 Germany 222565
3 France 153814
4 Turkey 126850
5 Italy 126376
```
#### Mid 2017
**Country of asylum includes total refugee and people in refugee-like situations in mid 2017**
```r=
UN Major Regions Total Pop
<chr> <dbl>
1 Asia 9067704
2 Africa 6134401
3 Europe 2508981
4 Northern America 380675
5 Latin America and the Caribbean 323973
6 Oceania 58119
```
**The top ten asylum countries take up 61.3% of the total number of refugee in mid 2017**
Refugee and refugee-liked people from the top ten asylum countries **`11,332,775`**
The total number of refugee and refugee-liked people **`18,473,853`**
**Note** : `Point labels present the ratio of refugee in country of asylum to total number of refugee.`
**Note** : `It is obvious that Turkey bears the huge burden of resettling refugees due to the lack of social responsibility distribution.`
```r=
Country of Asylum Total Pop Ratio
<chr> <dbl> <dbl>
1 Turkey 3203785 0.353
2 Pakistan 1406794 0.155
3 Lebanon 1003076 0.111
4 Iran 978698 0.108
5 Jordan 692240 0.076
```
**The top five asylum countries take up 80.3% of the total in Asia in mid 2017**
Refugee and refugee-liked people from the top five asylum countries in Asia **`7,284,593`**
The total number of refugee and refugee-liked people in Asia **`9,067,704`**
## Search trend on Google
### The situation of refugee follows significant changes in the world
**The trend of searching the keyword ''resettlement'' on google.**
#### 2014-06 **Syrian election**[^second]
#### 2015-11 **Paris attacks**[^third]
#### 2017-03 **Trukey Constitutional Referendum**[^fourth]
#### 2017-05 **Two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean**[^fifth]
#### 2018-01 **Rohingya Muslim**[^sixth]
#### 2018-04 **Viktor Orban claimed victory in the parliamentary election**[^seventh]
#### 2018-04 **Refugees to be part of a resettlement programme in Germany**[^eighth]
#### 2018-09 **The U.S. cuts refugee cap to 30,000**[^ninth]
## Insight from historical experiences
### There are more than 45 high walls erect between countries today.
#### The Israeli West Bank barrier
Israel faces security threats on its borders with Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank. There are large swaths of fencing, wall or border controls there and for different reasons: to curb illegal immigration and as a separation barrier in the fight with Palestinians. But the costs that walls create are tensions and disruptions to civilian and economic life.[^tenth]
#### Korean Demilitarized Zone
The 160-mile Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has been separating North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Despite its name, it is the most heavily militarized border in the world. Until April 27, 2018, the governments of North Korea and South Korea adopted The Panmunjom Declaration and agreed to cooperate on officially ending the Korean War.
### Building a wall, an important commitment during the Trump campaign to block illegal immigrants.
The US president Donald Trump ask for 5.7 billion dollars to construct a wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometre) US-Mexico border. He has declared a national emergency on Feb 15, 2019, to fulfil his pledge to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, insistently using his executive authority to go around Congress to obtain more funds.[^eleventh]
The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she would take action "in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public" against the president's proposed border wall. "The Congress cannot let the President shred the constitution,".
### Do not disregard the historical experience.
Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller has once urged Donald Trump “not to go down the wrong path of isolation and exclusion” on Jan 27, 2017. He said “We Berliners know best how much suffering was caused by the division of an entire continent with barbed wire and concrete,” referring to Europe’s “Iron Curtain” division[^twelfth].
### Poverty, crime, smuggling, is there really a way to solve problems by building walls?
Data from the Drug Enforcement Agency shows that in 2017, a total of 7,979 kilograms of heroin were seized in the United States, 39% of which was seized at the US-Mexico border. However, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said that it mainly smuggled into the United States through legal ports, and smugglers hid drugs in private cars or trucks and mixed them with other commodities. Only a small percentage of heroin was seized at the site of the existing or planned border separation.
### Border walls don’t stop migration, only a way to postpone making larger and more difficult policy decisions.
**Note** : `Activists from Greenpeace display a message reading 'Mr President walls divide Build Bridges' along`[^thirteenth]
## Current Situation
### Global refugee status
#### Number of applicants expected to be resettled compared to actual resettlement in 2018
```r=
Origin Resettlement Submissions Departures Gap
1 Congo America 10995 7071 3924
2 Syrian Canada 4441 2500 1941
3 Myanmar America 1651 3036 1385
4 Syrian Netherlands 2045 698 1347
5 Somalia Canada 1630 294 1336
```
**Note** :`The y-axis contains the number of applicants who submitted before 2018, which shows the great difference between number of submission and departure.`
#### Gender distribution of asylum seekers in 2018
**Note** : `More than half of the applicants under the age of 17 revealing that the Internet takes on an important role in this anti-government movement.`
### Refugee status in Germany
#### Naturalization quota
**Note** : `Naturalization is an important indicator of the current situation of refugees. It indicates that the main refugees in Germany are from Syria, Ukraine, Iran and Iraq.`
#### Increase in labor force participation
**Note** : `Employment gap of the population without a migration background`
**Note** : `The difficulty of finding a job is highest for African refugees, followed by Asian refugees.`
## Current Concern
### Has the refugee crisis slowed down?
We are often encouraged to think about “solutions” to the refugee crisis, but as long as wars continue, people will continue to flee them. And others will continue to try to migrate even when states don’t want them to. Eventually, our governments’ efforts to stem unwanted migration can end up creating or exacerbating the very problems they purport to solve.
### “It’s not as if one person has ‘refugee’ printed on his forehead and another has ‘economic migrant’.”
The right to move freely within one’s own territory is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In the 21st century, an age where goods, communication, and certain kinds of people can move with greater ease than ever before, globalisation is still a highly unequal process. In 1990, according to research by the geographer Reece Jones, 15 countries had walls or fences on their border; by the beginning of 2016, that number had risen to almost 70.
Asylum seekers are subject to particularly complex and often violent filtering. Once they cross Europe’s frontiers, their movement is restricted and their right to work or to access social security is denied or severely limited. Asylum seekers claims are being assessed often by a process that is opaque, hostile and inconsistent. They live with the threat that their freedoms maybe curtailed at any moment. The system tries to place them into categories – refugee or economic migrant, legal or illegal, deserving or undeserving – that do not always fit the reality of their lives. And if the system breaks down, people are cast into a legal and moral grey zone that lasts for many months or even years.
### Why are we constantly being told to feel sorry for these strangers?
When there is a major disaster, journalists, aid agencies, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) often follow a similar logic in their public communications, which is to rush in and find the most urgent stories. It serves a necessary purpose: to tell people what the problem is, who is affected and what help is needed. However, the attention of the audience is fleeting. At some point, we feel overwhelmed and start to switch off the connection to media. Some of us may even start to feel hostile. This can harm those at the centre of the stories, distort our understanding of a crisis and even contribute to a sense of panic – which becomes a vicious circle, in turn, provokes panicked responses from the authorities.
### The connection must be seen
Some try to erase the fact that Europe is a diverse continent, in which Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and other secular traditions have been present for centuries, while some excessively regarded Europe as a holy place to the rest of the world. A more honest conversation about the crisis would involve a reckoning with our own past – and a beneficial starting point would be to recognise many of the migrants are making the perilous journey to Europe today; therefore, Europe is already a part of their lives.
### Keep asking questions
In The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt published in 1951, Arendt, a political theorist, argued the inability of states to guarantee rights to displaced people in Europe between the world wars helped create the conditions for dictatorship. Statelessness reduced people to the condition of outlaws: they had to break laws in order to live and were subject to jail sentences without ever committing a crime. Far from being the barbarians, they are often portrayed as – a mass of “illegals” threatening European security and identity – rightless people appear “as the first signs of a possible regression from civilisation”, Arendt warned.
On the other hand, we are often moved at times by an ideal. But it implies a certain naivety on the part of the beholder, that someone is being pulled by an illusion that the rest of us do not share. It belittles refugee, while at the same time aggrandising people from the free world.
## How data helps achieve better allocation?
### Does the destination of resettlement matter?
Some refugees have the job and language skills to do well just about anywhere, and some locations boast strong labor markets and community-based organizations that would benefit any refugee. Yet the data reveal clear synergies between individuals' characteristics and local conditions: **some refugees' strengths will be rewarded more in certain places than in others, while traits that might be liabilities in some places become less detrimental in others.**
### How does data-driven algorithm work?
To build the algorithm, IPL’s researchers (Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University and ETH Zurich) began with a modeling stage, using machine learning on historical data to calculate the likelihood that an individual refugee would find employment at each possible resettlement location within the host country, based on his or her demographic profile.
Next, the team calculated the likelihood that at least one member of a refugee case or family would find a job at each location. From there, they matched each incoming refugee case to the location offering the highest probability of employment, taking into account real-world constraints such as the fixed number of available spots at each resettlement office.
Compare with the original allocation method, the few whom UNHCR selects for resettlement from refugee camps are those who can provide evidence of severe persecution and suffering, which could potentially lead them to seek more hazardous approach or evidence of significant harm in order to leave. Meanwhile, family members might be separated based on the space of accommodation.
### The IPL-12/24 measure
Immigrant integration has become a major policy issue in many host countries. Scientific progress has long been hampered by the lack of a common measure of integration. Therefore, IPL proposes the short-form IPL-12 and long-form IPL-24 as pragmatic measures of immigrant integration, namely the degree to which immigrants have ++the knowledge and capacity++. Knowledge and capacity jointly enable individuals to realize their potential and achieve their vision and life goals in the host society. The measure captures six dimensions [^fourteenth]of integration — ++psychological, economic, political, social, linguistic, and navigational++ — and each is measured with a set of two or four survey questions. This is not the only or best measure of integration, but the goal was to strike a pragmatic compromise between construct validity, ease of use, and wide applicability.
### Benefit of data comparison
* The algorithm's potential is all the more remarkable when compared with other possible interventions--like language instruction and job training--that, while essential, can be costly, logistically challenging, and difficult to scale.
* The algorithm constantly mines updated data on refugee outcomes, so it will respond to changing conditions at each resettlement location, adjusting its assignments if certain refugees no longer fare well in places that were once their best match, or if better matches emerge.
* The algorithm would complement, not replace, the expertise of government officials and resettlement officers responsible for delivering integration services.
## Related institutions and treaties
### United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
UNHCR, created in 1950, is a United Nations programme with the mandate to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.
>Difficult position of UNHCRs?
UNHCR must reflect the diverse state perspectives and reach consensus for its future implementation.[^fifteenth]
---
### GCR (Global Compact on Refugees)
The United Nations (193 countries) have passed the New York Declaration in September 2016. The New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants represents a first step in addressing the unprecedented level of human mobility the world is facing.
The United Nations (192 countries) have passed the "Global Compact on Refugees (GCR)" in November 2018. The U.S. boycotted.
>GCR. Not new, but important.
Significance and limitations of the Global Compact on Refugees.
The second draft of the GCR covers many aspects that have been addressed in the past but have been insufficiently implemented - and the Pact wants to change this with the help of the Action Program.[^sixteenth]
---
### GCM(Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration)
The United Nations have passed the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakesh, Morocco on December 10, 2018. However, the United States became the first country to reject the contract at the end of 2017 because of their President Donald Trump. Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia have also withdrawn from the relevant procedures in recent months to several weeks. And Chile left the night before.
>Contract claim
There are many indications that the ideology of individuals and political parties has led countries to adopt different positions on immigration policies.[^seventeenth]
> Opposing voice (Speech by Alexander Gauland on the UN Migration Pact.)
- Only the commitment to immigrants is confessed, but the obligations of immigrants are not covered.
- Most of the signatory countries never become destination countries for migrants.
- The interests of the host countries remain completely unmentioned. This document is making migration a human right that transcends state law and becomes customary international law.
- The "milestone" of which this pact speaks is on the way to relinquishing the sovereignty of our country.
## Conclusion
> "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" - Nelson Mandela[color=#778BB8]
The current thorny challenge is the lack of **international cooperation and responsibility-sharing** to protect refugees.
While countries that receive refugees have certain legal obligations to assist and protect them, the legal duties of other states to step in and help relieve this burden is less clear. Despite multiple proposals and a mechanism to systematically, equitably, and predictably allocate responsibilities between states at a global level there still has not been an agreement.
**''People have less often considered what happens to refugees after they arrive.''** Many nations currently place incoming refugees randomly, dispatching them to disparate regions based on whether these areas have enough space to accommodate extra people.
Our competence provides us **a privilege to lend a hand to others and give voice to people who desperately need to tell their stories.** Anyone who says: "We should look after our own before we look after refugees," probably isn’t interested in doing either. Because the truth is that defending the freedom of all is nothing more than defending our freedom.
## Materials and methods
* R
* Python
## Reference and note
* Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University and ETH Zurich
[News reference link](https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-01/su-i-aaf011218.php)
[Immigration policy lab](https://immigrationlab.org/project/measuring-immigrant-integration/)
[Multidimensional measure of immigrant integration](https://www.pnas.org/content/115/45/11483)
* UNHCR Global
[Data source 1](http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/asylum_seekers_monthly)
[Data source 2](https://rsq.unhcr.org/en/#VoS7)
* Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Integrationsindikatoren table)
* Blog post of Professor Hein de Haas
[Reference link](http://heindehaas.blogspot.com/2017/03/myths-of-migration-much-of-what-we.html)
* Report from the Guardian
[Five myths about the refugee crisis](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/05/five-myths-about-the-refugee-crisis)
* Syrian election [2014/06/03](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-election-sends-powerful-signal-of-assads-control/2014/06/03/16876fca-eb2a-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html?utm_term=.1c2db166b743)
* Paris attacks [2015/11/13](https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/nov/14/paris-attacks-what-we-know-so-far)
* Trukey constitutional referendum [2017/03/15](https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/why-is-turkey-quarrelling-with-germany-and-netherlands/article17466517.ece)
* Two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean [2017/05/07](https://nypost.com/2017/05/09/nearly-250-missing-following-shipwrecks-in-mediterranean-sea/)
* Rohingya muslims [2018/01/16](https://www.businessinsider.com/bangladesh-and-myanmar-agree-to-resettle-rohingya-muslims-within-2-years-2018-1)
* Viktor Orban claimed victory in the parliamentary election [2018/04/06](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43693663)
* Refugees to be part of a resettlement programme in Germany [2018/04/23](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-migrants-angela-merkel-refugees-un-a8318646.html)
* U.S. cuts refugee cap to 30,000 [2018/09/17](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/17/politics/pompeo-trump-refugee-asylum-levels/index.html)
* Donald Trump declares national emergency [2019/02/15](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-16/donald-trump-signs-national-emergency-over-mexican-border-wall/10818528)
* Berlin mayor: 'Don't build this wall'[2017/01/27](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/27/berlin-mayor-michael-mueller-donald-trump-border-wall)
* Are there "wall" lessons to be learned from Israel? [2019/02/12](https://wset.com/news/nation-world/are-there-wall-lessons-to-be-learned-from-israel)
* Korean DMZ and Mexican border [2018/03/30](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/30/trumps-strange-comparison-of-the-korean-dmz-and-mexican-border-crosses-a-line/?utm_term=.0fd3d70f1d89)
[^first]: Migration researcher. Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Founding member and former co-director of the International Migration Institute (IMI) of the University of Oxford.
[^second]:2014-06 **Syrian election**
Three years after Bashar al-Assad’s brutal suppression of nationwide protests plunged Syria into a vicious civil war. Syrians voted on in a tightly controlled election on June 3 2014 that reinforced President al-Assad’s tenacious hold on power. However, there are no serious opposition contenders or independent monitors, and voting did not take place in the many war-ravaged parts of the country that are under rebel control. Eventually, the election has delivered him a third seven-year term in office. The opposition has denounced the election as a sham, and Western governments say they will not recognize its legitimacy.
[^third]:2015-11 **Paris attacks**
130 people died and over 350 were injured on 13 November, 2015 as Paris suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe since the Madrid train bombings of 2004, in which 191 people died.
The deadliest incident took place at a large Parisian music venue when at least three terrorists attacked a packed concert by the American rock group Eagles of Death Metal, killing 87 people. Using automatic weapons, the gunmen were said to have fired indiscriminately into a crowd of around 1,500 people. During the assault witnesses say they heard some of the attackers shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is greatest’ in Arabic) and also mention France’s airstrikes against Isis in Syria.
[^fourth]:2017-03 **Trukey Constitutional Referendum**
The Turkish Constitutional Referendum, to be held on 16 April, 2017, is a long-standing call by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AK party) to amend the Constitution on at least 18 counts. These amendments would vastly expand power of the president.
Netherlands has a sizeable Turkish population, with quite a number of Dutch citizens actually eligible to vote in the referendum. In the run-up to the referendum, the Netherlands and Germany, have canceled appearances by Turkish ministers supporting Erdogan as the ministers try to sway Turkish voters in the diaspora. This could threaten a European Union deal with Ankara to stem the flow of migrants — a critical issue in Germany, where more than 1 million asylum seekers have arrived over the past two years.
[^fifth]:2017-05 **Two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean**
Almost 250 refugees are missing and feared dead after two shipwrecks were found in the Mediterranean.
The first shipwreck took place on May 5, when a rubber dinghy sank after sailing with 132 people aboard for several hours, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Another shipwreck took place May 7 off the coast of Libya, where 163 people are feared dead. The total number of people believed to have died or disappeared while trying to cross from North Africa to Italy is more than 1,300 since the beginning of 2017.
[^sixth]:2018-01 **Rohingya Muslim**
Bangladesh and Myanmar have on Jan 16, 2018 agreed to resettle 650,000 displaced Rohingya Muslims within 2 years. The hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees has fled the region during a brutal military crackdown that began in August 2017, which included killings, rapes, and village burnings.
[^seventh]:2018-04 **Viktor Orban claimed victory in the parliamentary election**
Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed a landslide victory in general election. He will serve a third consecutive term in office, with his party Fidesz projected to win a two-thirds majority in parliament. In a speech to supporters, Mr Orban said his victory gave Hungarians "the opportunity to defend themselves and to defend Hungary". He promises to defend the country's borders and block migration by Muslims.
In 2015, Hungary built a fence along its borders with Serbia and Croatia to stop illegal migrants.
[^eighth]:2018-04 **Refugees to be part of a resettlement programme in Germany**
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the country will take in some 10,000 migrants who were selected by the United Nations' refugee agency. Those 10,000 refugees were part of a resettlement program that Germany supports in an effort, "to prevent illegal migration and substitute it through legal opportunities."
Germany tripled its financial support to the UNHCR in the last three years, making Germany the second biggest donor after the United States.
[^ninth]:2018-09 **The U.S. cuts refugee cap to 30,000**
In 2018, President Donald Trump lowered the refugee cap to 50,000, a dramatic decrease from the ceiling of 110,000 that President Barack Obama's administration had set for the 2017 fiscal year. And then lowered it again to 45,000.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced 17 Sep, 2018 that the United States will limit the number of refugees that can resettle in the country to 30,000 in 2019, its lowest mark since at least 1980.
[^tenth]: Israel began building a "safety barrier" in the West Bank of the occupied territories in 2002, saying that it would stop Palestinian terrorists from launching attacks on the Israeli people.
[^eleventh]: More than 1,000 kilometers of fences has already built in the era of George W Bush.
[^twelfth]: The Berlin Wall is a fully enclosed border defense system built by the East German government around the West Berlin border during the German split to separate it from the West German territory. The wall was built in 1961 until the wall collapsed in 1989, with a total length of 167.8 km.
[^thirteenth]: Activists from Greenpeace display a message reading "Mr. President, walls divide. Build Bridges!" along the Berlin wall in Berlin on Jan. 20, 2017 to coincide with the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
[^fourteenth]:**Psychological integration:**
the connection with the host country, the willingness of living there and the sense of belonging.
**Economic integration:**
Income, employment, satisfaction with employment situation, and the ability to meet different levels of unexpected expenses.
**Political integration:**
The understanding of the important political issues facing the host country and the degree to which respondents engage in discussion and political action.
**Social integration:**
Social ties and interactions with natives in the host country, and the participation in organizations with natives.
**Linguistic integration:**
The assessment of their ability to read, speak, write, and understand the dominant language of their host country or region.
**Navigational integration:**
The ability to manage basic needs in the host country, such as knowing the typical way to pay income taxes, rules for driving, how to put an address on a letter, and how to appropriately seek medical help.
[^fifteenth]: According to the UNHCR Constitution, the secretariat only accepts administrative expenditure. All other costs of refugee protection are to be paid by voluntary contributions from UN member states, which they can pay at their own discretion and therefore also geopolitical interests.
In addition, UNHCR is expected to overlook the implementation of international conventions, with contributor states holding powerful positions through the financial system. If global protection standards are not respected, UNHCR can hardly rely on influence as it has to concern about emergent funds.
[^sixteenth]: Among the central topics include the division of responsibilities, financial support and comprehensive provision of humanitarian measures, the cooperation of various members and the independence of refugees as well as finding solutions.
In addition, the pact is under the mandate of UNHCR and has efficacy with the action program, but it will not be legally binding. This carries with it the danger that states formally express themselves for the pact, but ultimately act according to their own interests and participate conditionally in their responsibilities. Therefore, sustained political will of states is indispensable.
[^seventeenth]: The first goal of the Global Immigration Contract (GCM) is to “collect and use correctly categorized data as a basis for fact-based policy development”. Emphasizing a preconceived cultural perspective is not a solution, but a management issue in the process of immigration services. The Global Immigration Compact (GCM) refuses to adopt a unilateral approach and stresses that “it is essential to put together the challenges and opportunities of international migration, with the aim of working for the benefit of all” (paragraph 9).
###### tags: `migration` `refugee`
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