International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition): Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Human geography approaches to refugees and asylum seekers analyze processes shaping forced international migration and settlement. Geospatial data, including statistical estimates of refugee and asylum seeker flows—often collected by governments or UN divisions—are essential to understanding refugee geographies. Human geographers increasingly analyze specific patterns shaping these flows, including legal categorizations of migrants, popular discourses affecting migrant reception, place-specific interactions between migrants and officials, and migration strategies of refugees and asylum seekers.