Refugees

I. World ProblemsLouise W. Holborn

BIBLIOGRAPHY

II. Adjustment And AssimilationJudith T. Shuval

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I WORLD PROBLEMS

The refugee problem is a phenomenon of our age. It is the product not only of the most destructive wars of history, World War I and World War II, of modern dictatorial regimes, and of the national awakening of peoples, but also of the closed frontiers characteristic of the twentieth century. There were refugees in earlier centuries but no refugee problem in the modern sense, for the involuntary migrant could merge with those who by choice sought new homes elsewhere. In our time, the refugee problem has been distinguished from refugee movements of earlier days by its scope, variety of causes, and difficulty of solution.

Modern refugee movements, beginning in Europe and subsequently becoming world-wide, have given rise to a new class of people who are homeless and stateless and who live in a condition of constant insecurity which erodes human dignity. They have caused grave political and economic problems for the countries of temporary reception, problems which have proved too burdensome for the administrative facilities and financial resources of private organizations and national governments. The refugee problem has thus transcended national jurisdiction and institutions.

Furthermore, while in its earlier stages the refugee problem was seen as a temporary and limited phenomenon, it has now come to be acknowledged as universal, continuing, and recurring. In response to this challenge the international community has developed a complex mechanism of world-wide cooperation involving a tripartite partnership of national governments, private agencies, and international organizations; no longer confined by strict definitions of the word “refugee,” it is prepared to approach the problem in all its various aspects—political, social, economic, and humanitarian.

Defining the refugee

There is no single definition of “refugee” that is suitable for all purposes. When associated with humanitarian aims, the connotation of the term differs from that used in international agreements, since the human aspects of the refugee problem are clearly distinct from the question of a refugee’s status in any given situation (Rees 1957; Weis 1960). However, all refugees have in common these characteristics: they are uprooted, they are homeless, and they lack national protection and status.

The refugee is an involuntary migrant, a victim of politics, war, or natural catastrophe. Every refugee is naturally a migrant, but not every migrant is a refugee. A migrant is one who leaves his residence (usually for economic reasons) in order to settle elsewhere, either in his own or in another country. A refugee movement results when the tensions leading to migration are so acute that what at first seemed to be a voluntary movement becomes virtually compulsory. The uprooted become either internal refugees, that is, “national refugees” (persons who have been displaced in their own country), or “international refugees” (persons outside their country of origin). The latter are designated refugees in legal terminology when they lack the diplomatic protection granted to nationals abroad.

There are no generally accepted criteria to determine when a refugee ceases to be a refugee. Proposed criteria include: when the refugee is earning a living and has found a permanent place to live; when he has acquired a new nationality and has obtained equal rights with the inhabitants of the country of asylum or resettlement; and both criteria together.

Statistics on refugees are affected by many factors: the difficulty of obtaining accurate data; the purpose for which the statistics are compiled; and the fact that refugees are always on the move. The best estimate for 1967—over 11 million refugees—is based on persons registered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), voluntary agencies, and governmental and intergovernmental offices. Doubtless there are many unrecorded refugees receiving noaid; it is equally likely that many instances of duplicated registration occur, enabling some refugees to benefit from more than one agency.

European refugee movements

Europe, in the twentieth century, has been a vast sea of refugee movements set in motion by the disruptions of war, the breakup of empires, the impact of violent nationalism, and the arbitrary actions of dictatorial regimes. Early in the century, political turbulence in the Balkans and Asia Minor resulted in the movement of hundreds of thousands of people from one country to another, culminating in large exchanges of populations, in particular of Greeks, Bulgars, Serbs, Armenians, and Turks. The Convention of Lausanne, January 30, 1923, stipulated a compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. A total of 1.3 million Greeks, including tens of thousands from Russia and Bulgaria, were transferred to Greece, and about 400,000 Turks to Turkey. Between 1913 and 1925 more than 220,000 Bulgars moved into the truncated territories of Bulgaria, and the Convention of Neuilly, November 27, 1919, provided for a voluntary exchange of populations between Greece and Bulgaria. After the Russian collapse in 1917, 30,000 Assyrians who had fought against the Turks escaped to the Caucasus, Greece, and Iraq, and later to Syria. Armenians fled from persecution and massacre in Asia Minor following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Turkish nationalism. By 1923 an estimated 320,000 Armenian refugees were scattered in the Middle East, the Balkans, and other European countries (Simpson 1939a, pp. 11–61).

About 1.5 million Russian nationals were dispersed and left stranded in north, central, and southern Europe and in the Far East as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, the rout of the anti-Bolshevik armies in European Russia in 1919–1920, the famine of 1921, and the collapse of White Russian resistance in Siberian Russia in 1922 (Kulischer 1943, p. 39; Simpson 1939a, pp. 62–125).

The ranks of refugees were further increased by those in flight from dictatorships in Spain, Germany, and Italy. Some 140,000 of the Spanish refugees who sought safety in France between 1937 and 1939 remained in that country after the Spanish Civil War came to an end; smaller numbers, especially children, were evacuated to Great Britain, Belgium, Mexico, and the Soviet Union; between 40,000 and 50,000 fled to north Africa (Simpson 1939b, pp. 58–63). Between 1933 and the outbreak of World War n, more than a million refugees, most of them Jews, left Germany: many succeeded in fleeing to western Europe or across the seas, but nearly 700,000 of them remained in the territories subsequently occupied by Germany and its allies. Refugees from Italian dictatorship numbered 65,000-70,000 in 1938; many of them went to north Africa (Simpson 1939a, pp. 117–125).

Refugees in World War II

World War n caused the most formidable displacement of population ever experienced. First, there was the mass movement of Germans within “Greater Germany.” Ethnic Germans were transferred into Germany, mainly from eastern Europe; it has been estimated that approximately 600,000 persons had been transferred into the German Reich by the spring of 1942 (Kulischer 1943, p. 25). Other government measures for the movement of German nationals included the dispersal of industry in Germany, the “colonization of the conquered territories,” and evacuation from bomb-target urban centers. In addition, hundreds of thousands of German Jews were herded into concentration and extermination camps. Finally, large numbers of Germans fled from the path of the victorious Allied armies. Then there was the displacement of non-Germans: those expelled from the defeated countries; those whose movement was effected by agreements or treaties for the transfer and exchange of populations; those dispatched to “Greater Germany” as prisoners of war or forced laborers; and those non-Germans, mostly Jews, systematically deported from the defeated countries to the concentration camps of Germany. It has been estimated that by May 1945 there were 40.5 million uprooted people in Europe, excluding non-German forced laborers and those Germans who fled before the advancing Soviet armies (Kulischer 1948, pp. 255–273).

Postwar refugees from eastern Europe

About 1.6 million persons displaced from east European countries during the period 1939–1945 are estimated to have refused repatriation after World War II (these figures are based principally on those compiled by the Occupation authorities in postwar Germany and by the International Refugee Organization). But the first major postwar movement of refugees from eastern Europe was as a result of the communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, when 60,000 Czech refugees fled to the western zones of Germany and Austria. At the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution in October 1956, more than 200,000 Hungarian refugees poured over the borders into Austria (180,000) and Yugoslavia (20,000). There is still a small but steady flow westward of escapees from the communist countries of eastern Europe, estimated, at the end of 1964, to be between 12,000 and 15,000 per year. During the period 1945–1966, according to records kept by the U.S. Escapee Program, a total of about 1,270,000 persons escaped from eastern European countries to western European countries. West German authorities estimate that, during the same period, some 3,735,000 German refugees fled into West Germany from East Berlin and other parts of East Germany. A similar number are escaping from Communist China to other Asian countries.

“Repatriates” to European countries. The 9.7 million German “expellees” from the territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, the 3.3 million persons from eastern and southern Europe, and the nearly 65,000 persons who moved, under governmental agreement for family reunion, from East Germany to West Germany, were national and ethnic German refugees for whom the West German government assumed responsibility (Hol-born 1956, p. 15; International Labor Office 1959, chapter 1). Similar problems attended the liquidation of European colonial regimes. For instance, the years 1945–1958 saw the repatriation of many French citizens from former French territories in Asia and Africa: 75,000 returned from Indochina after the establishment of independent Vietnam, 10,000 left both before and after the establishment of the Republic of Guinea in 1958, and 138,000 came from Tunisia and 172,000 from Morocco after the attainment of independence by those countries in 1956. Over 15,000 French citizens left Egypt after the Suez crisis in 1956. Some 950,000 more left Algeria during and after the struggle for independence which culminated in the establishment of an independent republic in 1962 (McDonald 1965). The Netherlands received about 300,000 Dutch Indonesians when Indonesia became an independent state in 1949 (Smith 1966, p. 47).

All of the above were accepted by their respective countries as national refugees, i.e., as legal citizens. The relationship between the repatriates and the indigenous population was very strained at first, particularly in regard toe mployment and social adjustment, but the national governments assisted in the settlement and integration of the newcomers and, in the case of the Dutch Indonesians, in the resettlement of many overseas.

Refugees in Asia

In the second half of the twentieth century, the scene of mass population movements has shifted from Europe to Asia. The people involved have tended to come from a simple agricultural setting, and their flight, for the most part, has been to equally undeveloped and often politically unstable countries. The result has been widespread destitution and misery.

India and Pakistan

Following the partition of British India, in 1947, into the two sovereign states of India and Pakistan, 15 million people crossed the newly defined borders, in the greatest mass migration ever recorded. A government refugee program was evolved for the estimated 8 million Hindus who, by 1954, had crossed over into India; and the Pakistan government reported that a similar number of Muslim refugees from India had to be provided for by government programs (U.S. Congress …1954; International Labor Office 1959, pp. 108–120). A further uprooting, though on a much smaller scale, took place as a result of the hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir in August 1965.

Korea

In the wake of the defeated Japanese armies, U.S. and Soviet forces occupied Korea. At the Potsdam Conference of 1945 the country was divided at the 38th parallel into a Soviet zone (North Korea) and a U.S. zone (South Korea). Attempts to reunify the zones into a single Republic of Korea failed. In the political and military upheaval that followed, millions of uprooted and homeless people wandered over the country. In 1955 the number of repatriates and refugees from Japan and North Korea was estimated at 4 million. These uprooted people had increased the South Korean population by about 25 per cent as compared with its size in 1945 (International Labor Office 1959, pp. 124–125).

The South Korean government’s task of rehabilitating and reconstructing its country was immeasurably complicated by the presence of these destitute and homeless people. A comprehensive program of resettlement and integration was begun under the direction of the provincial governments with the aid of the UN Civil Assistance Command (later Korean Civil Assistance Command) and the Office of the UN Command Coordinator for Korea. The UN Korean Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA), which was created by the General Assembly in 1950 and terminated in 1959 and was supported by contributions from 34 UN members and five nonmember states, provided food, shelter, and medical treatment for hundreds of thousands of refugees and lent skilled staff to the UN Command for the control and distribution of relief. In August 1947, the UN reported that all but 3 million had been resettled or given new homes. By mid-1961, 1.6 million of these had been resettled; a further 1.4 million were living in barely human conditions on government-provided land in the area of Seoul and Pusan, an estimated half million of them—the so-called “hard core” cases— supported by Protestant churches, Korean World Service, and by other voluntary agencies (the source of this information is the Newsletter of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, in its issues for June 1961 and July-August 1962; other sources put the total number of refugees from North Korea to South Korea during the period 1948–1953 at about 5 million).

Vietnam and Laos

Mass refugee movements occurred during and after the armistice conference, held in Geneva in July 1954, which terminated hostilities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Article 1 of the convention provided for the division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel (a “provisional military demarcation line”): the Vietminh (People’s Army of Vietnam) were to the North, and the French Union forces to the South. Civilians were to be allowed to move freely from one zone to the other, and the authorities of each zone were to assist their movement. By May 18, 1955, the final evacuation date, 860,000 persons (of whom 676,000 were Catholics) were known to have left North Vietnam for South Vietnam (Corley 1958/ 1959, p. 526); the actual total, however, may have been about 960,000. In addition to Vietnamese, about 42,000 seminomadic tribesmen joined the flight to the south (ibid., p. 528). Because of communication problems and the opposition of Vietminh forces, their flight was a difficult and dangerous undertaking. French military and civilian planes flew many refugees south, and the U.S. Navy task force transported others by sea from embarkation points along the coast (Lindholm 1959,pp. 63–76). Two Vietnamese organizations, the Refugee Commission and the Catholic Committee on Resettlement of Refugees, were aided by the governments of the United States, France, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia, and also by UNICEF, WHO, and various private charitable organizations (Corley 1958/1959, p. 528). By 1960, 315 refugee villages had been established for the newcomers on undeveloped agricultural land and, in the normal course, the integration of the refugees would soon have been completed (Schechtman 1963, p. 168).

However, in face of gradually intensifying military and guerrilla activities in the south since 1954, large numbers of refugees have moved from unsafe areas in search of shelter and protection. These later movements have occurred for a variety of reasons: panic flight from areas of military operation; escape from Vietcong terrorism, extortion, and recruitment; and movement away from communist-controlled areas, both at the urging of religious leaders and as a result of government resettlement programs. In addition, some have left their homes because of typhoons and floods. By January 31, 1966, the Agency for International Development (AID) reported an estimated 1,001,808 refugees in South Vietnam (U.S. Committee for Refugees 1966, p. 23); at about the same time, the Office of Refugees and Migration Affairs of the U.S. Department of State estimated that since 1961 1.4 million South Vietnamese had become refugees in South Vietnam. It seemed likely that the actual movements exceeded both these figures. Another estimate by the U.S. Department of State (based, like its other estimate, on hearings before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held during 1965 and 1966) put the number of Laotian refugees from areas of Laos under communist control at about 350,000 during the period 1960–1966.

The Government of the Republic of Vietnam, with the assistance of AID and some 24 American voluntary agencies, has developed an ambitious program of assistance for emergency and longrange services, including programs that attempt to increase the refugees’ productivity in resettlement areas. It is hoped that as many of the refugees as possible will eventually return to their villages in peace (see also U.S. Congress, Senate 1965a; U.S. Congress, Senate 1966a).

China

Invading Japanese armies caused refugee movements from southern China as early as 1938, but the major flow of refugees resulted from the protracted Chinese civil war, the final establishment of a Chinese communist government in 1949, and the transfer of the Nationalist government to Formosa. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese fled in various directions. An estimated 337,000 fled to the east and southeast Asian countries, where they lived in precarious conditions (Schechtman 1963, pp. 310–322). By 1960, 14,000 of these had been assimilated in the northern part of Laos, being ethnically the same as the Laotians and sharing the same religion. The great majority found refuge in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, where, of the 1962 population of 3.2 million, more than 1 million were estimated to be refugees (Schechtman 1963, p. 312; compare United Nations, Hong Kong …1955, p. 955). But the true figures are difficult to determine, for mingled with the refugees were many former Hong Kong residents returning after the war. It is also estimated that, during the period 1948–1966, about 40,000 European refugees entered Hong Kong and the Philippines from mainland China.

In May 1962, in self-defense against this human tidal wave, the British blockaded the borders in an attempt to control and limit the inflow of refugees; the communists, too, who had hitherto done little to prevent the exodus, now took steps to end it. But the inflow continued by sea, and in 1962 an additional 200,000 refugees were added to Hong Kong’s teeming millions. Although British policy in Hong Kong incurred much criticism, recrimination was tempered by awareness of the difficulties facing the authorities there. It had to be admitted, too, that the remaining countries of the free world had failed to offer an alternative place of refuge to most of the fugitives from Chinese communism. On June 4, 1962, President John F. Kennedy did indeed authorize the parole of specified Hong Kong Chinese, and by June 1966 over 14,000 of them had been paroled into the United States. Brazil, too, accepted a limited number. The offer of the Chinese Nationalist government on Formosa to resettle 50,000 refugees was viewed with skepticism, in view of that government’s own food and population problems; only the Portuguese colony of Macao maintained an open-door policy. By early 1966 an estimated 80,000 Chinese refugees were in Macao, and approximately 1.25 million-2 million in Hong Kong (U.S. Committee for Refugees 1966). According to figures based on records kept by the British authorities in Hong Kong and by a joint committee consisting of representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee for European Migration, and the U.S. Escapee Program, about 2,080,000 Chinese refugees entered Hong Kong and Macao from mainland China during the period 1948–1966.

Since 1953 the Hong Kong government has been engaged in the building of multistory resettlement housing and the establishment of a vast network of small industries in an attempt to keep pace with the rapidly increasing population. With the aid of international and local voluntary organizations, they have been doing an exceptional job of integrating the mass of refugees, but these efforts have inevitably lagged behind the needs of the situation (U.S. Congress, House, Committee on the Judiciary 1966, pp. 11–13). Figures for those Chinese who went to Formosa are also hard to determine. Their integration was greatly aided by the Nationalist Chinese government and the Free China Relief Association (International Labor Office 1959, pp. 128–129).

Tibet

Communist China’s assertion of authority over Tibet in 1950 and the Lhasa uprising in 1959 resulted in the flight of thousands of Tibetans over the Himalayas. There are about 43,000 Tibetan refugees in India, 7,000 in Nepal, some 3,000 in Bhutan, and 3,000 in Sikkim. The Indian government engaged in settling about 7,000 on land, while about 28,000 were resettled through their own efforts. The remaining 8,000 presumably found work of some kind. In Nepal, under a bilateral agreement between the governments of Nepal and Switzerland, the resettlement of these refugees is the responsibility of both the Swiss government and the Swiss Red Cross (International Council …1965, p. 23). Emergency aid was provided by the U.S. government and by private groups. The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) aided in the vocational training and resettlement of Tibetan refugees, with a view to making them self-supporting.

Refugees in the Middle East

Palestine Arab refugees

The UN decision to partition Palestine was followed by the 1948–1949 Arab-Israeli conflict and the flight of an estimated 500,000 people from their homes in the area of fighting. Of these, the majority were Arabs, with a smattering of Armenians, Greeks, and non-Jewish nationals of other countries. By June 30, 1966, 1,317,000 were registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA): 707,000 in Jordan, 307,000 in the Gaza strip, 164,000 in Lebanon, and 140,000 in Syria (UNRWA 1966). From the outset, the compilation of accurate statistics on the refugees was made extremely difficult; for political reasons, and out of a desire for additional material aid, figures were inflated by false registrations and unreported deaths (Gabbay 1959, pp. 165–171). UNRWA was established by the UN in 1949 as a temporary organization. But since substantial progress in the reintegration of the refugees, either by repatriation or by resettlement, has not materialized, the mandate of the agency has several times been extended. From May 1, 1950, to December 31, 1965, UNRWA spent close to $535 million, contributed to a large extent by the United States.

By June 30, 1965, 70 per cent of the refugees received basic dry rations and 40 per cent had been sheltered in 54 camps, the rest having found their own accommodations. More than 228,000 children were going to school, 168,000 of them in the 406 UNRWA-UNESCO schools. UNRWA operates 10 vocational or teacher training centers and undertakes basic preventive and curative health care through 88 clinics and other facilities; in addition, more than 250,000 refugees, mainly children, benefit from UNRWA’s programs of supplementary feeding and milk distribution (United Nations, Relief and Works Agency …1966). With the cooperation of the Arab host governments and the international organizations, UNRWA attempts the dual task of providing relief and assisting refugees to become productive and self-supporting.

However, the problem of the Palestine Arab refugees is as much political as socioeconomic. Until a political solution is achieved, these refugees will continue to symbolize the instability that, in 1967, resulted in yet another Arab-Israeli war.

Israel

The persecution of the Jews by Nazi Germany was an important factor in speeding up the establishment of the Jewish national home first envisaged in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Immigration of Jews into Palestine, which had continued both openly and clandestinely since the end of World War i, became legally unrestricted upon the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. An ambitious resettlement program has been pursued by the government of Israel, involving a total of 1,209,282 immigrants by 1964 (Israel …Statistical Abstract, 1965), the majority being refugees from the countries of central and eastern Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East. The Jewish Agency for Israel, the Joint Distribution Committee, and the United Jewish Appeal, as well as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, assisted in this work.

Refugees in Africa

The attainment of independence by more than 35 African countries during the period 1951–1966 has been accompanied by a complex displacement and uprooting of peoples, which in turn has resulted in severe problems. Deep-seated tribal and ethnic rivalries in many of the newly independent countries and restrictive conditions under continuing white minority rule have resulted in a flight to neighboring territories, adding to the long-existing tendency to economic migration. The estimates below of the number of people involved in these movements must be treated with caution. The task of obtaining accurate figures on refugees —never an easy one—is here made even more difficult by a number of factors: the poverty and relative lack of development in the countries of origin and asylum; the complexity of motivations leading to these movements; the variety of aids and attempted solutions, ranging from repatriation (as in the case of the Algerians and the Congolese) to attempts at local integration, especially in the case of irredentist movements (as with the Somalis).

Since 1961, an estimated 650,000 persons have fled into adjacent territories. A partial breakdown of the figures for African refugees indicates the following movements.

(1) As of late 1966, more than 300,000 refugees had made their way to the Republic of the Congo : at least 250,000 came from Portuguese Angola, 25,000 from Rwanda, and 40,000 from the Sudan, as well as an unknown number from various other countries. Accordingly, the UNHCR helped to establish and maintain coordination between the Congolese authorities, the UN Organization in the Congo, the International Red Cross, and a number of voluntary agencies.

(2) By the end of 1966, Burundi had an estimated 78,000 refugees from Rwanda and the Congo.

(3) Also by the end of 1966, the Central Africa Republic harbored more than 6,000 Congolese and 25,000 Sudanese.

(4) In the fall of 1965, about 2,000 Burundis crossed into Rwanda.

(5) About 50,000 refugees from Portuguese Guinea moved into Senegal during 1964 and 1965. In 1966 these refugees were benefiting from a joint program of the Senegalese government and the United Nations, as well as from bilateral aid from the United States and France.

(6) According to estimates available early in 1967, there were about 30,000 refugees in Tanzania, including 12,000 from Mozambique and an equal number from Rwanda. Most of the remainder were Congolese.

(7) In December 1965, Zambia requested emergency aid for some 5,000 refugees. By the end of May 1966 more than 1,000 Angolese refugees were in Zambia.

(8) By mid-1966, the number of refugees in Uganda was estimated at 140,000 (70,000 from Rwanda, 45,000 from the Sudan, and 25,000 from the Congo). About one third of this number arrived during 1965–1966.

(9) An unknown number of refugees of various origins have sought asylum in other African countries, including Kenya, Chad, and Ethiopia.

The governments of all these countries of asylum have developed emergency and resettlement programs in cooperation with the UNHCR (for further information, see United Nations, Office …1966a).

(10) Since March 1960, a number of fugitives from South Africa’s apartheid policies have sought asylum in neighboring countries, notably Tanzania; similar flights have occurred from Southwest Africa and from Rhodesia, totaling an estimated 1,500 by 1966 (U.S. Congress, Senate 1966a, p. 98).

The above survey of African refugees does not include an estimated 1 million or more Eastern Nigerians who fled into their Eastern Region homeland following the September 1966 massacre of Easterners in the Northern Region. The Eastern Region government set up the Eastern Region Refugee Commission in Enugu, Nigeria, in an effort to cope with this influx. Since they were national refugees, they were ineligible for aid under international refugee aid programs, but the burden of their resettlement would seem too great for Nigeria to bear alone, whatever the outcome of the 1967 civil war.

Refugees in the Western Hemisphere

Political refugees have been a common phenomenon throughout the history of the Western Hemisphere. Small in number, they have chiefly comprised exiled political leaders and people of means seeking temporary asylum in other countries. In recent decades, however, the refugee problem has undergone a fundamental change (Inter-American Commission …1965, p. 65). Refugees now tend to be fugitives from political persecution, the majority with little or no means, and their flight has been the cause of recurrent strain between their countries of origin and the countries in which they seek asylum.

The number of refugees in this area is difficult to determine, for much of this movement is of a complex, and often clandestine, nature. During recent decades, many Haitians, especially those in the skilled and professional classes, are known to have taken refuge in the Dominican Republic, the United States, and several Caribbean countries. Bolivians fleeing their country have been mainly workers seeking to escape their government’s persecution; the majority of Paraguayan refugees are also opponents of the present regime. There is scant information about those who fled the Dominican Republic after the fall of the Bosch government in 1963 and the revolution of 1965.

Cuba

The major movement of population in the Western Hemisphere, and one which has caused considerable concern to the Latin American countries and the United States, has been the mass exodus of Cubans since the revolution of 1959. By October 1963 they totaled an estimated 350,000. About 275,000 crossed to the United States. The rest fled to Spain, Puerto Rico, and various Latin American countries. Many of these came under the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The United States federal government, through the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, provided a financial assistance program, as well as educational, retraining, and vocational programs. It established a policy of resettling as many of the refugees as possible outside of Miami, the main entry center. A number of voluntary resettlement agencies were contracted with to furnish resettlement services on behalf of the government. By December 1, 1965, nearly 100,000 of the 185,000 refugees registered at the Cuban Refugee Center in Miami had been resettled to self-supporting opportunities in 3,000 communities throughout the 50 states and Puerto Rico. A further influx of Cuban refugees into the United States began in December 1965, following an agreement between the Cuban and United States governments for reunion of refugee families. Under this agreement about 4,000 Cubans per month were being airlifted into the United States. The total arrivals by December 9, 1966, were 50,051, of whom 76 per cent had been resettled. By December 1966 the federal government had spent more than $200 million, not including the additional sums and services provided by the nongovernmental agencies (Holborn 1965a). The majority of Cubans, on entering the United States, were granted no more than parole status, which greatly hindered their economic integration. But in October 1966 Congress authorized an adjustment of their status to that of permanent residents.

Toward a solution of refugee problems

The League of Nations, in its attempt to solve the refugee problems created by World War I, was severely handicapped by a limited conception of its powers and responsibilities. It was assumed

(1) that those problems were of a temporary nature and that a final solution could be achieved;

(2) that the mandate of the League’s organs included only refugees so designated by international arrangements; (3) that the responsibilities of its international organs were not operational; and (4) that embarrassment of League members could be avoided by eschewing actions which would favor one country at the expense of its political opponent (Warren 1958; Macartney 1934).

It had become obvious that the western European countries were in no position to offer further hospitality to refugees unless these countries could be relieved of earlier arrivals. The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR), created in 1938 on the initiative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to help refugees from Germany and Austria, therefore embarked on an international program for planned and assisted migration (Warren 1958, p. 112). This was a new dimension in the conception of an effective refugee program, and one which was carried over into the period after World War n. Thus the refugee became a migrant, and as such had to fit the immigration requirements of the country of resettlement.

United Nations activities, 1944–1951

During the gradual liberation of Europe by the Allied forces, the tasks of assistance to refugees and displaced persons from eastern Europe were divided between the High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, the IGCR, and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The last, created under an agreement signed in Washington on December 9, 1944, by 44 nations, provided care and maintenance in camps for refugees and displaced persons in its operational areas and aided them in their repatriation (Woodbridge 1950). IGCR gave material assistance to those in other areas and prepared for resettlement those who could not be repatriated; the High Commissioner continued to provide legal and political protection. According to estimates in 1946, there were some 1,675,000 refugees for whom new homes had to be found (Holborn 1956, chapters 10, 11).

Even before its formal inauguration, the United Nations was confronted with the task of dealing with millions of uprooted people, and it has been continually harassed by the problem ever since. Like its predecessor, it recognized the refugee problem as one of immediate urgency and as international in scope and character. It also followed League precedent in regarding the enormous and widespread refugee and displaced persons problems created by World War n and its aftermath as a passing phenomenon for which lasting solutions could be found. Thus the organs established by the United Nations to deal with refugees have all been of a temporary nature.

In December 1946 the UN General Assembly approved the creation of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) to take over all responsibilities from IGCR and UNRRA in July of the following year. The Preparatory Commission of IRO (PCIRO) shouldered these responsibilities until the constitution of IRO came into force on August 20, 1948, delayed until this date by the need for ratification by a fifteenth state. IRO then embarked on a comprehensive large-scale program and worldwide operational field activities.

By December 1951, IRO had spent $430 million contributed by its 18 member governments (the United States contributed $237 million). In carrying out its tasks, IRO administered a network of camps; it provided housing, food, and medical care; it arranged for the rehabilitation and retraining of refugees, as well as for their legal protection; it negotiated agreements for resettlement, brought the refugees to ports of embarkation, and, in a vast shipping operation, transported them overseas in its own ships (Holborn 1956, chapter 21).

However, by 1950 there were still an estimated 1,250,000 or more refugees throughout the world. Of these, 400,000 were registered with IRO but had not yet been settled; instead, they remained in Germany, Austria, and Italy, with an unknown but substantial number of unregistered out-of-camp refugees. In addition, new refugees from the countries of eastern Europe continued to flow into western Europe and were in need of some form of international assistance when IRO was liquidated.

International activities since 1951

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) were created to help complete the unfinished task of resettling refugees. The Office of the UNHCR was established by the UN General Assembly under the Statute of the UNHCR in 1950. The office is an integral part of the United Nations, but with the independence necessary for the effective carrying out of its mandate. The High Commissioner promotes, organizes, coordinates, and supervises international action on behalf of refugees protected by former international agencies and on behalf of any person who is outside the country of his nationality (or if he has no nationality, the country of his former habitual residence) because he has been persecuted by reason of his race, religion, nationality, or political opinion, and cannot —or, owing to such fears, does not wish to—avail himself of the protection of that country. Once a refugee acquires the nationality of his country of residence or resumes his former nationality, he is no longer under the mandate of the High Commissioner (for a summary of these and other aspects of the international program, see Holborn 1965b).

ICEM was formed on the initiative of the United States at the Migration Conference at Brussels in December 1951 as an agency for planned and assisted migration for European national migrants and refugees. It is independent of the United Nations, operating under its own constitution and directed and financed by thirty emigration, immigration, and “sympathizing” countries. It inherited the International Refugee Organization’s shipping fleet and world-wide network of embarkation and reception facilities, as well as its invaluable administrative experience. By December 1966, ICEM had transported 1,464,630 Europeans to overseas countries, of whom 726,000 were refugees—including Hungarian refugees and refugees under the United States Escapee Program (Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, Annual Report 1966).

Nongovernmental voluntary agencies

Traditionally, the basic responsibility for dealing with an influx of refugees rests with the authorities of the country of asylum. However, from the time the refugee problem first became apparent, the voluntary agencies have stimulated public concern and action. They have implemented the programs financed by governments and have provided the human link between the individual refugees and the governmental and international agencies. They have been largely instrumental in organizing the sponsorships of refugees wishing to emigrate and have been active in making local integration a success by helping refugees to adjust as members of new communities. In 1963 the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), an organization in Geneva that incorporates more than eighty voluntary agencies, was awarded the Nan-sen Medal in recognition of its work.

Political and legal protection

The right of asylum, by which a state can accord hospitality and protection to political refugees and refuse to repatriate them, is widely accepted and practiced in international law. But a state is under no legal obligation to grant asylum: refugees cannot claim it as a right. The granting of asylum to refugees is frequently the cause of political tension between the country of asylum and the country of origin— tension which in turn affects the refugee. The provisions of international law that determine the status of an alien assume that he has a nationality. If he does not, he has no clearly defined rights, and it may often be impossible for administrative officials, no matter how well disposed, to assist him. It is therefore of great importance for all parties concerned to secure some regularization of the status of the refugee and to designate an international authority to act as his representative.

A series of conventions drawn up between 1922 and 1951 sought to narrow the legal no man’s land of refugees. They made provision for the granting of identity and travel documents (such as the so-called Nansen passport), for civil status, employment, education, and social assistance (United Nations, Department of Social Affairs 1949). Two basic principles were established by these agreements : (1) that the personal status of the refugee (legal capacity, right to marriage and divorce, adoption, etc.) shall be governed by the law of his country of residence; (2) that the principle of reciprocity shall not be refused to a refugee in the absence of de jure reciprocity. However, these rights have been established only for specified categories of refugees and have been granted only by those states which have ratified the conventions or act as if they have ratified them. Legal protection, therefore, is limited in practice to certain groups, and even for these groups is assured only in certain countries. Thus, although political protection by an international agency is extended to all eligible refugees, the appropriate international organizations can aid refugees only insofar as international conventions or negotiations make it possible.

A general Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was adopted by a plenipotentiary conference at Geneva in 1951. This document declared that the term “refugee” should apply to all those who had been so considered under the Arrangements of 12 May 1926 and 30 June 1928, the Conventions of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938, the Protocol of September 1939, or the Constitution of the IRO (for all of which see Holborn 1938), and to those persons who, because of events occurring before January 1, 1951, have a “well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion”; are outside their country of nationality; and cannot “or owing to such fear” are unwilling to, avail themselves “of the protection of that country” (United Nations, Office …1966k, p. 15). The Convention, signed by 24 states, came into force on April 22, 1954, and by December 1966 had been ratified by 50 governments.

Under the influence of the Convention, the term “refugee” has become a new legal concept. It has gradually been accepted “that the refugee has a special status that sets him apart from the ordinary alien because he is without any country’s diplomatic protection” (Read 1962, p. 49). In addition, it is no longer relevant from where the refugee has come: eligibility for refugee status is determined by the relationship of the refugee to events (Weis 1954). Some measures in favor of refugees have been taken by various international governmental bodies and also through special protocols applying to international conventions and special provisions inserted in general international instruments [for a different view of this definition of “refugee” seeMigration, article onSocial Aspects].

In recognition of the universal nature of the refugee problem and its indefinite duration, a draft protocol to the 1951 Convention drawn up by the UNHCR in consultation with the governments concerned was signed by the president of the 21st UN General Assembly on January 31, 1967. When ratified by six countries, it will make the Convention universally applicable to refugees and will secure for new groups of refugees the same status as that enjoyed by those already covered by the Convention.

Material aid

“Rights” and “status” do not in themselves constitute solutions to the problem of refugees, but are merely conditions for solutions. By the end of 1951 an estimated 400,000 nonsettled refugees (130,000 of them living in camps) were still under the mandate of UNHCR. All of these needed material assistance and either resettlement by migration to overseas countries or local integration in the country of first asylum. The Ford Foundation made available a $3 million grant for operational service. Following this precedent, the UN General Assembly authorized the High Commissioner to set up a three-year aid program, to be financed through voluntary contributions from governmental and nongovernmental sources and to run from 1955 through 1958.

While the Office was engaged in this program, it was requested by the UN General Assembly on November 9, 1956, to act as a general coordinator for the activities of governments and voluntary agencies on behalf of the more than 200,000 Hungarians pouring into Austria and Yugoslavia. Following the Hungarian emergency, a resolution of the General Assembly in 1957 emphasized the need for greater flexibility to cope with emergencies. The High Commissioner was then authorized to establish an emergency fund, to be made up by repayments of loans granted to refugees and to be used under the general directives of the executive committee of the UNHCR programs. Approximately 150,000 refugees had benefited from these programs by December 31, 1965: over 96,500 resettled on a permanent basis through UNHCR programs and some 43,000 through other means.

From January 1952 to January 1966, the UNHCR assisted 3.8 million refugees with international protection and/or material aid. Some 1.6 million ceased to be refugees either by returning to their country of origin or by acquiring citizenship in the country of asylum or final resettlement. But in spite of this reduction, the number of refugees was 2.25 million as of January 1, 1966 (U.S. Committee for Refugees 1966).

Expansion of UNHCR responsibilities

The concept of “good offices” empowers the High Commissioner to provide assistance, without a specific mandate, to countries which request it. In 1957 the UN General Assembly recognized as a matter of concern to the international community the problem of nearly one million Chinese refugees who had, from 1949 onward, flooded into Hong Kong from mainland China (United Nations, Hong Kong …1955). The assembly did not place these refugees under the High Commissioner’s mandate, but asked him to lend his good offices on their behalf. The concept was applied again to assist the large number of Algerians (estimated in 1959 at 200,000), the majority without means, who had fled into neighboring Tunisia and Morocco. Initial emergency relief had been given by the International Committee of the Red Cross. In May 1957 the Tunisian government appealed to the High Commissioner for assistance, and, acting under a UN General Assembly resolution of November 1958, he joined with the League of Red Cross Societies in a relief operation to aid refugees in both countries. This task was successfully concluded by July 31, 1962. In addition, the High Commissioner organized relief operations in 1958, financed through voluntary contributions, for those who had fled their homes in Egypt as a result of the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez venture in October 1956. Finally, a resolution of the UN General Assembly in the World Refugee Year 1959 extended the authority of the High Commissioner to lend his good offices for the welfare of nonmandate refugees. This resolution provided an avenue of assistance to the new nations of Africa beset by the problems of population movements that had followed in the wake of independence. Togo was the first to seek help in this way, at the beginning of 1962 (Read 1962, p. 45).

In the African context, bearing in mind the fragile nature of the social and administrative structures of the newly emerging nations, the Office of the UNHCR was faced with an entirely new set of problems, requiring new approaches and solutions. Here its first task was to assess the immediate needs (notably food and medical care) and to alleviate these through an allocation from the Emergency Fund. The Office’s second task was to seek “operational partners” experienced in emergency relief work, such as the League of Red Cross Societies, and to obtain additional sources of material aid. The next stage is to promote integration on the spot as a permanent solution for the refugees, since voluntary repatriation is often impossible, and resettlement even more so. Here again, UNHCR works closely with the international voluntary agencies, as well as with the governments of the asylum countries.

An important aspect of refugee aid in the less developed countries, such as those of Africa, is that tackling the problem of integrating refugees in the country of asylum results simultaneously in the provision of developmental aid to the indigenous population. Thus, for example, at Mugera in eastern Burundi, UNHCR has taken the lead in creating a village for 25,000 Rwandese refugees, with all this entails in infrastructure and organization. In this work, the High Commissioner often calls upon the UN operational agencies experienced in development work, such as ILO, FAO, WHO, and UNESCO.

While regional organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) can contribute much to the alleviation of refugee problems, it is important that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees be continued. Fortunately, the international community’s awareness of the close interrelation between the political, social, economic, and psychological aspects of refugee problems has culminated in the strengthening of the High Commissioner’s coordinating role to the point at which any given refugee situation can be dealt with in its entirety. It appears increasingly likely that only the High Commissioner, as the representative of the United Nations, can embody the impartiality and prestige required for a humane and effective solution of these problems.

Louise W. Holborn

[Directly related are the entriesHomelessness; Migration. Other relevant material may be found inInternational Crimes; International Organization; and in the biography ofKuxischer.]

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Holborn, Louise W. 1938 The Legal Status of Political Refugees, 1920–1938. American Journal of International Law 32:680–703.

Holborn, Louise W. 1939 The League of Nations and the Refugee Problem. American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals 203:124–135.

Holborn, Louise W. 1952 The United Nations and the Refugee Problem. Yearbook of World Affairs 6:124–148.

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Holborn, Louise W. 1965a The Cuban Refugee Problem. Report prepared for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Cuban Refugee Program. Unpublished manuscript.

Holborn, Louise W. 1965b International Organizations for Migration of European Nationals and Refugees. International Journal 20:331–349.

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Kulischer, Eugene M. 1943 The Displacement of Population in Europe. Studies and Reports, Series O, No. 8. Montreal: International Labor Office.

Kulischer, Eugene M. 1948 Europe on the Move: War and Population Changes, 1917–1947. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

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Macartney, Carlile A. 1934 Refugees. Volume 13, pages 200–205 in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan.

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Proudfoot, Malcolm J. 1956 European Refugees, 1939–1952: A Study in Forced Population Movement. Evanston, 111.: Northwestern Univ. Press.

Read, James M. (1951) 1953 Magna Carta for Refugees. Rev. ed. New York: United Nations, Department of Public Information.

Read, James M. 1962 The United Nations and Refugees: Changing Concepts. International Conciliation No. 537. New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Rees, Elfan (1957) 1959 We Strangers and Afraid: The Refugee Story Today. New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Schechtmann, Joseph B. 1946 European Population Transfers, 1939–1945. Oxford Univ. Press.

Schechtmann, Joseph B. 1963 The Refugee in the World: Displacement and Integration. New York: Barnes.

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II ADJUSTMENT AND ASSIMILATION

Refugees, or “displaced persons,” are individuals who have involuntarily left their homes or communities and have been compelled by forces over which they have little or no control—war, invasion, persecution, or natural disaster—to change their place of residence, often from country to country. They are to be distinguished from voluntary migrants by the nature of the “push” factors which motivate them to move; however, many of their adjustment problems are similar. After World War II there were about twelve million displaced persons in Europe alone; the principal countries to which they moved were the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, Argentina, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and Brazil (Borrie 1959, p. 17).

The strain of prolonged displacement from their homes and communities, often combined with prolonged residence in temporary camps, serves to intensify the adjustment problems of refugees. The detachment and “normlessness,” as well as the physical deprivation which accompanies this status, often results in what has been called “DP apathy,” namely, an initial attitude of passivity and lack of initiative. This is also the result of dependency patterns that tend to develop in situations, such as in refugee camps, where all basic needs are met by the authorities. Observers have noted a certain detachment from the past and a feeling of lack of continuity resulting from constant interruption of stable patterns (Bakis 1955).

Moving from one social system to another requires that the refugee be resocialized into a new set of groups and norms. In the long run, adjustment implies loss of group visibility as members become indistinguishable from members of the host society. This is accomplished through a process of increasing conformity to the latter’s norms and cultural patterns. The extent to which the group will in fact become invisible depends not only on members of the group itself but also on the extent to which the host society demands complete conformity or tolerates differential cultural patterning. Once refugee groups have accepted certain over-all cultural patterns, there is usually an increasing acceptance of cultural pluralism on the part of the host countries [seeAssimilation].

Criteria of adjustment

Defining the criteria of adjustment presents a particularly ambiguous problem when the “core culture,” or culture of the host country, is unstructured or heterogeneous. This has been the case in Israel, where the host society is itself relatively new and is made up of large numbers of culturally diversified subgroups. The question then becomes to what the new group is supposed to conform. Even in countries like Australia, Canada, and the United States, the range of conformity of oldtimers is itself wide. Furthermore, a newcomer tends to conform to the norms of the appropriate class or reference group with which he identifies, and the norms of these groups may differ among themselves within the social system of the host society. It is therefore sometimes unclear as to how close to the “core culture” a refugee must come before he can be considered “assimilated.”

Economic adjustment

Successful entry of the major breadwinner into the occupational system of the host society is generally considered to be a major criterion of adjustment. It is also the first critical step taken into the new society. Most countries that have admitted large numbers of refugees, with the exception of Israel during its early years, have not suffered from a serious unemployment problem. Indeed, in recent years many of the countries that have accepted refugees have done so largely as a means of building up their manpower resources, although ideological considerations are, of course, always present. Getting a job upon arrival is therefore usually not a critical problem. Some countries select prospective immigrants in terms of their qualifications to fit into the labor demands of the society. However, it is worth noting that at times of economic recession it is generally the newcomers to the labor force on whom local workers will focus their hostility.

Entry into the economic system is often accompanied by considerable downward mobility. Having little choice, refugees are pressed to accept jobs at a lower status level than that to which they have been accustomed or for which they have been trained. Downward mobility produces frustration and tends to slow up other aspects of the adjustment process. Professional or intellectual refugees have been particularly frequent sufferers from this form of deprivation. Thus the fact of “having a job” must be considered qualitatively in terms of its implications and symbolic meaning to the individual, if it is to be used in research as a criterion of adjustment.

Social adjustment

Satisfactory entry into the economic structure is not necessarily associated with successful adjustment in other spheres. Although the over-all satisfaction stemming from successful economic adjustment may in some cases be generalized to other areas, thus speeding the adjustment process, there are also cases of economic success coupled with a large measure of social isolation from the host society and retention of many traditional norms. In a sense the economic process of adjustment is the easiest and quickest; other processes of assimilation are generally slower.

There are at least two reasons for this differential patterning of the over-all adjustment process. Refugees may be employed in enterprises employing only other refugees. This is quite common during the early stages of settlement, particularly if the host authorities have provided temporary housing adjacent to employment opportunities. The work situation will then provide an opportunity for interaction only with other refugees, either from the same countries of origin or from other countries, but in any case not with members of the host society from whom local norms can be learned.

Furthermore, even if the refugee works side by side with members of the host society, the work situation may be limited to formal, instrumental relationships and may provide little overlap with the more informal spheres. The patterns that are learned will then be the ones associated essentially with job performance but not those having to do with other aspects of life in the new society. It is entirely feasible, even common, for the refugee to differentiate his behavior into an acculturated portion, which is associated with his work situation, and a traditional portion, in which he speaks his own language, maintains traditional social patterns, and socializes his children in the traditional manner.

Other criteria of adjustment that have been used are knowledge of the host country’s language and culture, social relations with and membership in host groups, satisfaction with life in the host country, and identification with and conformity to the norms and patterns of the host country. Acceptance of the host country as one’s “home,” weakening of traditional group patterns, adoption of external symbols of membership in the host society in the form of clothing, food preferences, recreation, etc., are also usable criteria of adjustment.

Taft has noted that each of these general criteria may vary in terms of four dimensions. Does the individual want to be assimilated? Does he do anything in this direction? Does he perceive that he is accepted or rejected? Is he in fact accepted by the host group? Criteria of adjustment must thus be viewed both from the point of view of the individual refugee or group itself and from the point of view of the host society; and the image of the process may differ from these two points of view (Taft 1963, p. 153).

The process of adjustment

Two sides to the adjustment process must be considered: that of the refugees on the one hand, and that of the host society on the other. A satisfactory outcome of the adjustment process necessitates a certain complementarity of the two.

The degree of similarity of the refugee’s traditional culture, as well as the general similarity in social structure of his former homeland to the host society, plays a major role in the adjustment process. In a general sense, the extent of such differences determines how much change will be required in the acculturation process. The social structure of the country of origin and the refugee’s former place in it predetermine his skills and attitudes and thus direct him to a specific segment or stratum of the host society. Immigrants with few industrial skills or little experience with modern business procedures, for example, will have difficulty moving into these sectors of an industrialized Western society. Similarly, a differently structured class system in his country of origin will increase the newcomer’s difficulty in moving into what he considers the appropriate stratum of the host society. This problem has been less severe in Western countries that have admitted refugees of European origin, and considerably more evident in a country like Israel, which has admitted large numbers of immigrants from Near Eastern and north African countries into a predominantly Western-oriented social system.

Predisposition to change

Inevitably a certain measure of change is demanded of the refugee in the course of his adjustment process. His own predisposition to change plays a major role in conditioning this process. Such a predisposition implies a willingness to accept new roles for himself, often abandoning traditional ones. It also implies a certain “time-perspective” that enables the refugee to see beyond present difficulties of adjustment to future goals. This will be accompanied by a relatively low level of resentment at the difficulties met with along the way (Zubrzycki 1956, p. 155).

On the whole, refugees are less predisposed to change than immigrants who have changed their country of residence voluntarily and who therefore tend initially to identify more positively with the host society. In most cases refugees immigrate to the host country because it is the only, or one of the few, alternatives available to them. Their initial response may therefore continue to reflect the sort of “DP apathy” referred to above; his results in a relatively low predisposition to change. Another response is one of relief in finally escaping the uncertainties and insecurities of refugee existence and a determination to rebuild one’s life; this may result in a relatively positive predisposition to change. The former is probably more characteristic of older refugees and the latter of younger ones.

The predisposition to change is also dependent on the extent to which the refugee perceives the host country as his permanent locus of settlement. In some cases refugees intend to use the host country only as a temporary refuge until they are able to return to their former country or to immigrate elsewhere; such an orientation results in a low predisposition to change. With the passage of time it often becomes clear that return to the country of origin will be impossible or undesirable; the pattern of orientation then tends to shift toward a more positive predisposition to change.

The perceived status differential between the culture of the host society and that of the refugee is important in conditioning his predisposition to change. When the host culture is viewed as superior to their own, refugees will be more motivated to abandon traditional norms and patterns and to adopt those of the host society. When the reverse is the case, and the refugee feels that his traditional patterns are superior, the predisposition to change will be lower.

Institutions that aim to maintain group solidarity among the refugees will function in accordance with the general predisposition of the group. For example, a native language newspaper or an ethnic church will attempt to speed entry into the host society in a group with a high predisposition to change but will try to reinforce group separateness in a group with a low predisposition to change.

Level of expectation

The expectations of the newcomers concerning the host society play a major role in their adjustment. When expectations are unrealistically high, frustration may result. Thus there is reason to believe that realistic knowledge of what to expect in the new society aids the adjustment process considerably. The point of reference to which newcomers compare the reality of the new society is often their country of origin; they tend to view it nostalgically, thus exaggerating its favorable features. The point of comparison is rarely the DP camp in which they may have lived immediately prior to immigrating, since that was inevitably viewed as temporary, but rather the last stable community in which they lived (Shuval 1963, pp. 43–113).

Similarly, unrealistic expectations on the part of the host society impede satisfactory adjustment by refugees. Lack of knowledge of the newcomers’ cultural patterns or expectations of too rapid conformity may lead members of the host group to feelings of hostility when their expectations are not met with quickly.

Orientation of the host society

The attitude of the host society toward the entry of refugees will be favorable when a labor shortage exists and the newcomers are seen as major manpower supplements; this has been the case in recent years in Canada and Australia. In these cases, economic expansion has tended to weaken the traditional objections of organized labor to immigration. In the United States, on the other hand, the labor unions have been instrumental in limiting immigration since the 1920s. Another factor inducing a favorable attitude on the part of the host society has been the ideological one, as in the case of Israel, where refugees have been welcomed unconditionally in terms of the over-all goal of that society to provide a homeland for all Jews,

With time, the over-all orientation of the host society often becomes differentiated with respect to various subgroups of refugees. Other factors having to do with color and cultural differences among subgroups of refugees may lead to patterned hostility on the part of certain members of the host society. Hostile attitudes toward groups already present in the host society may be generalized to specific appropriate groups of refugees (Shuval 1962).

Visibility of the refugee group

The sheer size of the refugee group plays a major role in the process of its adjustment. Size must be considered in relation to the size of the population of the host society or to that segment of the host society into which the refugees move. While the largest absolute number of refugees immigrated to the United States between 1946 and 1954 (1,700,000), they represented but a small proportion of the total population of the host country; the 790,000 who immigrated to Israel during the same period more than doubled the total population of the country. The size of the group is relevant because it affects its visibility and identifiability as a social unit. When the group is relatively small, its absorption can occur with few members of the host society being aware of or affected by the process. When it is proportionately large, absorption of the refugees turns into a major national problem, with virtually all members of the host society aware of and frequently involved in one way or another in the process.

The social homogeneity of the refugee group also affects its visibility to members of the host society and consequently the rate at which it will successfully lose its group identity. When members of the refugee group are heterogeneous with respect to their class origins, religious identity, educational background, health status, or occupational potential, they are able to move more smoothly into the appropriate segments of the host society. If, on the other hand, they are highly concentrated in one such category (for example, lower class, Jews, unskilled workers, or chronically ill), the visibility of the group is increased and members of the host society continue for much longer to apply the appropriate label to all members of the group.

Ecological patterns

Ecological patterns of residence play a major role in determining patterns of adjustment. The initial tendency of immigrant groups—for reasons of in-group solidarity, government policy, or limitation of alternatives—is to locate themselves residentially close to members of their own group. Such proximity tends to ease the process of adjustment for members of the group by lending support during the initial period of strain. At the same time, it tends to slow down acculturation in at least two ways. First, it reinforces traditional patterns of language and culture, thus slowing down conformity to norms and values of the host society. Furthermore, by maintaining group visibility, it focuses the attention of the host society on the group and on its nonconformity, often arousing hostility on the part of the members of the host group.

In Israel an attempt was made during the earlyyears of refugee settlement to mix groups at random, but the many social problems that this generated led with time to a planned policy of ethnically homogeneous rural settlements. In terms of over-all adjustment, the impediment resulting from such ethnic isolation is probably overbalanced by the more favorable group adjustment and psychological stability resulting from it.

Patterns of adjustment

The initial settlement of refugees often occurs in temporary camps. This has occurred, notably in Australia and Israel, because of the sudden large scale of the immigration and because the host society was typically unprepared, economically or socially, for the influx. In the United States and Canada, initial settlement has more frequently been on an individual basis, with assistance rendered through governmental or community organizations.

Camps tend to isolate residents from the general stream of social life of the host society because of their physical isolation, as well as because of the necessary interaction of residents with other refugees, both socially and often in the work situation. The temporary nature of such arrangements tends to limit residents’ ability to plan ahead or to structure their future lives in terms of more permanent goals. In this sense, camps in the host country tend to perpetuate the kind of normlessness and detachment that characterize the refugee prior to immigration. In addition, Borrie (1959) has noted that continued residence in a situation in which the individual is supplied with his basic necessities, while authority remains in the hands of the government, tends to increase the individual’s expectations that he is entitled to certain rights and services. In an attempt to break this pattern of dependency, Israel abandoned the policy of complete support for immigrants during the first years of immigration by establishing “ma’abarot,” that is, communities in which housing was provided, but residents were expected to support themselves.

During the initial stages of adjustment, refugees have been observed to follow two different patterns of adjustment: increasing conformity among those with a generally positive orientation toward the host society, and increasing withdrawal and lack of conformity to the norms of the host society by those groups who are initially disappointed or frustrated (Shuval 1963, pp. 117–138; Taft & Doczy 1962, pp. 64–67). Over a longer time span, a gradual pattern of conformity to norms of the host society appears among most refugees. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that certain fundamental aspects of the traditional culture are peculiarly tenacious; while many changes may occur, the ethnic group tends to retain its identity in certain spheres for a surprisingly long time (Glazer & Moynihan 1963).

The host society is often interested in focusing refugee settlement in rural or nonurban areas. In some countries this policy is based on considerations of economic planning and security. For refugees originating in urban communities, the over-all adjustment process is often made more difficult when the need to adapt to a nonurban community is superimposed on the general requirements of adjustment to a new society. Despite this policy, there seems to be a voluntary trend on the part of refugees to filter back to urban centers. Often this internal migration is motivated by the need to be near kin or near urban centers of employment that are perceived as more favorable.

It is often technically difficult for the authorities of the host society to keep families of refugees together at the time of settlement. This has imposed a particular strain on groups that have traditionally lived in extended family systems; but even for groups accustomed to a nuclear family pattern of living, the strain of adjustment is heightened by isolation from familiar primary groups of kin. There seems to be reason to believe that detachment or uprooting from earlier social networks in the country of origin increases the need for stable, supportive relationships, particularly during the early years of adjustment to the new society. Such relationships are most effectively provided by family or, failing this, by individuals from the refugee’s own country of origin.

Judith T. Shuval

[Directly related is the entryMigration. Other relevant material may be found inMinorities.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bakis, Edward 1955 “D.P. Apathy.” Pages 76–88 in Henry B. M. Murphy, Flight and Resettlement. Paris: UNESCO.

Borrie, Wilfrid D. 1959 The Cultural Integration of Immigrants. Paris: UNESCO.

Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. (1954) 1955 The Absorption of Immigrants: Comparative Study Based Mainly on the Jewish Community in Palestine and the State of Israel. Glencoe, 111.: Free Press.

Glazer, Nathan; and Moynihan, Daniel P. 1963 Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and the Irish of New York City. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.

International Sociological Association 1955 The Positive Contribution by Immigrants. Paris: UNESCO.

Kosa, John (1957) 1958 Land of Choice. Oxford Univ. Press.

Murphy, Henry B. M. 1955 Flight and Resettlement. Paris: UNESCO.

Shuval, Judith T. 1962 Emerging Patterns of Ethnic Strain in Israel. Social Forces 40:323–330.

Shuval, Judith T. 1963 Immigrants on the Threshold. New York: Atherton.

Taft, Ronald 1963 Applied Social Psychology, Ecological Studies of Immigrant Assimilation, and Scientific Psychology. Australian Journal of Psychology 15:149–161.

Taft, Ronald; and Doczy, A. Gedeon 1962 The Assimilation of Intellectual Refugees in Western Australia. The Hague: Research Group for European Migration Problems.

Zubrzycki, Jerzy 1956 Polish Immigrants in Britain: A Study of Adjustment. The Hague: Nijhoff.