The number of people crossing borders has risen steadily in the past 15 years. In 2005, almost 200 million people lived outside their country of birth.
“In today’s world, none of us can afford to be ignorant of world problems,” said Wilda Kaylor, associate director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education. “Even in a small city like Greensburg, we are connected to the global community.”
By Kayla Sawyer,
Online Editor
The number of people crossing borders has risen steadily in the past 15 years. In 2005, almost 200 million people lived outside their country of birth.
“In today’s world, none of us can afford to be ignorant of world problems,” said Wilda Kaylor, associate director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education. “Even in a small city like Greensburg, we are connected to the global community.”
On February 21, Seton Hill University’s Sisters of Charity sponsored a lecture by Susan Martin of Georgetown University on the topic of “International Migration in an Interconnected World: Challenges for the 21 Century.” Martin spoke about the causes of population movements, internal displacement immigration, forced movements, and refugee laws and policies.
Though it is an age-old phenomenon, the scale of which migration is happening has made it a global concern. People migrate for a variety of reasons: economic opportunities, environmental disasters, family reunification, political instability, war. In countries experiencing conflict and violence, 50 percent of the population is often displaced.
Migration is likely to grow quite substantially in years ahead. There are a large number of people who are moving throughout the world. However, the roughly 200 million who have lived outside their country represent only three percent of the world’s population.
“I think it’s easy to view the issue from just an American perspective… because that’s how we usually see it presented in the news. It’s important to see the bigger picture of a world in flux,” said Laura Patterson, associate professor of English.
The majority of people never migrate internally, let alone internationally. The United States is an exception because we are known for the mobility of our population. In most other counties, people are born, live and die in the same area that they were born.
“Too often political leaders and television hosts tend to talk about migration being out of control, and yet it’s hard to see a phenomenon being out of control when in fact it represents a very small part of the world’s population,” said Martin.
Martin serves as the Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is also Co-Director of the Certificate Program on Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies.