Social Cohesion and Forced Displacement: A Synthesis of New Research

Abstract

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 100 million people around the world were forcibly displaced as of May 2022 (UNHCR 2022). 1 This includes over 25 million refugees and over 50 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) (UNHCR 2021).The share of the world's population that has been forcibly displaced because of conflict, political violence, persecution, and political, economic, and environmental crises grew from 1 in 167 in 2012, to 1 in 88 in 2021 (UNHCR 2021). 2 While conflict is a major cause of forced displacement, the climate crisis is increasingly forcing people to leave their homes.In the last 11 years, disasters such as floods and droughts have driven a larger proportion of internal displacement than conflict (IDMC 2021).Forced displacement can profoundly affect social cohesion among and between displaced persons, host communities, and communities to which displaced persons return.World Bank (forthcoming) defines social cohesion as "a sense of shared purpose, trust and willingness to cooperate among members of a given group, between members of different groups, and between people and the state." 3 This report focuses on social cohesion between forcibly displaced persons and host communities.Forced displacement may undermine or strengthen social cohesion through several mechanisms, including the trauma or mobilization effects of the displacement experience, its impact on social ties and economic and human capital accumulation, and the 1.This number includes refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs, Venezuelans displaced abroad, as well as refugees and other displaced people not covered by UNHCR's mandate.It excludes other categories such as returnees and non-displaced stateless people.2. This report uses the definition of refugees from the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and a broader definition of IDPs that includes disasters as one of many driving factors of displacement.See Box 3 for more details on the definitions used in this report.3. Although each paper is ultimately concerned with how forced displacement impacts social cohesion, the authors define social cohesion in different ways and explore distinct outcomes.