Introducing a new cross-national dataset on the ethnicity of refugees, covering the years 1975–2009, this study analyzes refugee flight patterns. We argue that the asylum destination of refugees is not haphazard but determined by trans-border ethnic linkages. Building on migration theories, we elaborate a theoretical framework for the direction of refugee movements, which includes spatial, temporal and cultural pull factors. The statistical results suggest that refugees flee to nearby countries with ethnic kin populations and a history of accepting other co-ethnic refugees. Thus, sub-national refugee characteristics, such as ethnicity, are essential to understanding the flight direction of refugees.

Recent scholarship has found evidence that refugee flows may inadvertently contribute to the spread of conflict across borders. Little is known, however, about the spatial diffusion of conflict within a state’s borders and what role internal displacement plays in such a dynamic. This question is of relevance because of the particular marginalization of internally displaced persons, which make them at risk of predation and militarization by armed groups. Drawing on a novel global data set on internal displacement, we evaluate this question and find evidence for a similar mechanism leading to conflict spread operating at the domestic level.

The Covid‐19 pandemic severely threatens refugees: Most refugees live in developing countries with poor health care systems, the lockdowns left many refugees without income, border closures prevented forced migrants from their right to seek asylum and anti‐refugee sentiment as well as insecurity in refugee settlements increased. Building on past refugee research and reports on refugee‐related challenges during the Covid‐19 crisis, we explain how bad sanitation, inadequate accommodation, additional restrictions of movement and employment and language barriers increase grievances among refugees and tensions between refugees and host populations. Particularly in large and overcrowded settlements these issues can lead to violent conflict, as we demonstrate with a case study of the Moria refugee camp in Greece. Yet, the impact of Covid‐19 on refugees generally lacks politicization, and many governments are reluctant or unable to provide adequate housing and sanitation to refugees. We present policy recommendations for improving refugee protection amidst Covid‐19, including not only the prevention of further spread of the virus but also that of insecurity.

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This chapter examines the link between forced migration as a response to environmental degradation on the one hand, and conflict and security in host countries, on the other. From a political science perspective, the authors review existing research on migration as a reason for conflict, with a particular focus on refugees. They show that forced migrants per se do not influence violence in host countries, but only in those cases where refugees are socially and economically marginalized. Also, when aid services are unequally distributed to them and host communities. Thus, the authors highlight the need for governments to pursue inclusionary socio-economic policies towards their population and refugees as a prevention against dangerous tensions. They also present the limitations of current knowledge and indicate future research to solve the challenges associated with forced displacement.