SI N° 6 | 2020
Desafios migratórios contemporâneos
Contemporary migratory challenges

The term “migrations” corresponds to the spatial mobility of people caused by various factors, such as religious, psychological, social, economic, political and environmental. This special issue of the journal “Transcontinent Human Trajectories – Trahs” aims to portray various challenges faced by people in their displacements given their human condition.

The beginning of the 21st century is marked by the advent of huge migratory flows triggered mainly by people seeking refuge from conflict, climate change and political and religious persecution.  The 2018 UNHCR – ACNUR Report indicates that worldwide more than 70 million people were forced to leave their homes due to war, conflict and persecution from different motivations. Only in Syria, in 2016, United Nations Organization (UN) identified over 11.5 million Syrians in need of humanitarian aid, of which over 6 million were internally displaced in Syria and more than 5 million left their countries and migrate to Syria. This migratory flow reached high levels in 2016, when an exponential increase of people tried to get into developed countries by seeking asylum. To this large number of people, we need to add those that left their countries due to acts of violence and oppression by groups that control human trafficking and exploit the more vulnerable ones.

Many situations actually arise when persons are displaced, either as refugees or as migrants. These situations may range from forced migration, loss of a family member and property, hunger and even loss of job and worse of any possibility of survival in the country of origin.

In this regard, it is important to highlight the large number of challenges a migrant and/or a refugee faces when arrives in a destination country, such as the search of a house, the learning of a new language and new customs or of a different culture, as well as the search of a new job and much more. 

The theme of contemporary migrations and their challenges lead us to rethink everyday scenes of life and social relations, as well as their daily confrontations, difficulties, successes, joys and sadness, as well as how the richest countries react vis-à-vis the poor ones, the political and economic issues involved and how public policies respond to the challenges of education, heath, work and social assistance, as well as the importance of the defense of human and social rights. Thus, migration is a theme that runs through all areas and dimensions of human life.