Europe has always been an attraction for people from all over the world, particularly after the Second World War, for the economic prospects, freedom, peace and stability it offers. People from the developing countries, Middle East, African countries and Latin American countries have been migrating to Europe to seek better life and future. Since the beginning of the year 2015, the percentage of people coming into Europe has grown manifold. What is different this time as compared to previous patterns and phases of migration is that these people are not economic migrants; they are asylum seekers looking for refuge. These people are fleeing war-torn regions of Middle East and North Africa, and particularly Syria. The media was overwhelmed by the stories and images of large numbers of people attempting to enter borders, struggling to board buses and trains, and heart-wrenching stories of how people have become homeless and the ruined lives of children, women, elderly and young. The print and electronic media reported the crisis as a migrant crisis or immigrant crisis. But, theoretically speaking, the movement of people, their purpose, their goal, and conditions which they attempt to escape tend to define them differently, either as a migrant, asylum seeker or a refugee. While understanding the nature of displacement of a large number of people in this crisis, it is pertinent to understand the difference between a migrant, refugee, and an asylum seeker.
A migrant is understood as “any person who lives temporarily or permanently in a country where he or she was not born, and has acquired some significant social ties to this country.” But this definition is too narrow in the context of the fact that according to the policy of some of the states a person can be considered as a migrant even when s/he is born in the country.
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