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Intro­duc­tion

Back­ground to the Migrants in Coun­tries in Cri­sis Initiative

When con­flicts or nat­ur­al dis­as­ters erupt, they can dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect migrants liv­ing, work­ing, study­ing, trav­el­ing, or tran­sit­ing in the coun­try expe­ri­enc­ing the cri­sis. The earth­quake and tsuna­mi in Tohoku, Japan (2011), the floods in Thai­land (2011), hur­ri­cane Sandy in the Unit­ed States (2012), and the out­break of con­flicts in the Cen­tral African Repub­lic and in Yemen in recent years are but a few exam­ples of crises in which migrants were among those seri­ous­ly affect­ed. While they are resilient and resource­ful, a vari­ety of fac­tors cre­ate par­tic­u­lar vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty for migrants in the face of such crises. Lan­guage bar­ri­ers, restric­tions on mobil­i­ty, irreg­u­lar immi­gra­tion sta­tus, con­fis­cat­ed or lost iden­ti­ty or trav­el doc­u­ments, lim­it­ed social net­works, iso­la­tion, and attacks and dis­crim­i­na­tion are some of the fac­tors that hin­der the abil­i­ty of migrants to access pro­tec­tion, move out of harm’s way, or oth­er­wise ensure their own safe­ty and well­be­ing. The Migrants in Coun­tries in Cri­sis (MICIC) Ini­tia­tive was con­ceived to address these challenges.