Conflict and forced displacement: human migration, human rights, and the science of health.

Abstract

We do not know where the adage “the wars of the 20th century were fought over oil, but the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water” comes from. However, its relevance to today’s circumstance of conflict and scarcity of natural resources and the profound influence of these factors on human migration are undeniable. Moreover, although for a brief moment, the impact of these global circumstances did not appear to directly impact the universal human experience (at least not from the perspective of the global north), we now knowdifferently. Let us consider this awareness a call to action for nurse scientists to expand our discipline’s perspective on the science of health, in recognition of the ways the influence of policy, the state of environment, and the application of the human rights framework impress on the changing world. In particular, let us consider the ways these external issues contribute to health inequity; disparities; and the mental, physical, and psychosocial health consequences of forced migration. The forced migration of families and communities is a complex phenomenon, driven by armed conflict, climate change, the allocation of scare, nonrenewable natural resources, and shifting patterns in the politics of globalization. On June 14, 2014, World Refugee Day, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees reported that the number of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people. As of 2014, in Syria, over 6.5 million people are internally displaced by the civil war (meaning they have fled their homes to seek protection but have not fled their country as refugees). In Columbia, 5.7 million people are internally displaced because of the decadeslong conflict involving the international drug trade, political corruption, and armed resistance movements. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, nearly 3 million have been driven from their communities to escape the conflict caused by “Africa’s world war” only to be faced with profound levels of disease and malnutrition. In Sudan, 2.4 million remain homeless because of the flight from human rights atrocities that have taken place since the start of their civil war. In Iraq, in addition to the regional instability caused by the Syrian conflict, tens of thousands have urgently fled cities to escape gender-based and religious persecution. In Somalia, 1.1 million people remain displaced because of violence, drought, and