9781422282847

A man outside the remains of his home in Sarajevo after his neighborhood was destroyed in March of 1996; Sarajevo was still the site of violence and looting three months after the official end of the Bosnian civil war in December 1995.

Political and ethnic tensions, especially in Africa, the Middle East, and southeast- ern Europe, have fueled many mass migrations. In extreme cases, refugees have tried to escape genocide and ethnic cleansing, an attempt by one group to create a racially and ethnically pure area through forced migration and mass murder. For instance, at the end of the Bosnian civil war in 1995, which was part of the larger ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia (1991–2000) in southeastern Europe, the number of refu- gees, including those displaced within the country, numbered 2 million. Others migrate to escape natural disasters, including volcanic eruptions, earth- quakes, floods, and tsunamis. In 2014, 19.3 million people were forced to flee their homes because of climate- and weather-related tragedies and geophysical hazards, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. And in 2015, severe weather alone affected millions. For example, in June 2015 in the South Asian country of Bangla- desh, more than 200,000 people were temporarily displaced by floods and landslides during the region’s rainy season.

11

CHAPTER 1