Here at AIDemocracy, we are always focusing on the interconnectedness of global issues and how everything has an impact on something else in some way, no matter how major or minor. In considering scenarios that could best depict this, we decided to create our “Refugee Crisis Story,” which will pull together Global Peace and Security, development, health, and environment (as well as other major global issues) as a way for us to conceptualize the interrelatedness in a new way.
So what are the major connectors that make the refugee crisis an interrelated issue? The refugee conflict starts with conflict and a breach on global peace and security. This conflict often starts from racial tensions and divisions, social and economic inequalities, and environmental resource wars, which can occur either within the borders of individual countries or between multiple countries. Civil wars and conflict zones break out, which compromises the peace and security of those living in these areas. When conflict arises in this way and occupying forces begin to invade territory, the result is people becoming displaced and compelled to leave their homes in order to survive. Thus, conflict zones create the presence of displaced individuals and fuel the refugee problem in the world.
When such large populations of individuals are displaced from their homelands, the environment and development of the entire region is affected as more pressure is placed on national infrastructures, services, resources, and economies. With such an increase in pressure, it is difficult for sustainable development to be both instituted and maintained. The availability of developed land decreases, access to clean and safe water becomes difficult, and an over extraction of resources produces a strain on the natural environment of a region.
With such developmental issues, not only are refugees forced to remain on the move, but their health is also severely impacted. Due to a lack of health services available, basic health needs are thrown out of the waste side, creating major disparities and epidemics. Malnutrition and hygiene are affected by no access to food and water. Also, reproductive health is placed under a severe threat in such crisis situations. No access to sexual and reproductive health services has a major impact on child and maternal health. Not to mention the sexual violence that young girls are exposed to in refugee camps and throughout their journey.
So, let’s begin the refugee crisis journey! Starting with a fictional piece that presents the crisis as a whole, we will then break it down into the major global areas that cause and are effected by the situation as a whole.
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