ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

Displacement

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Expulsion is a forced migration, by force or threat, of mostly religious or ethnic minorities who are forced to leave their region of origin. This includes forced, permanent flight, expulsion and forced resettlement from a state or during its reorganisation. This distinguishes them from deportation, which denotes forced displacement within a domain. Differentiation from other forms of migration is often difficult.

Definitions and boundaries
The concept of expulsion is neither legally nor historically clearly and unequivocally defined. It has long been a political battle term and is still a term of political language. Philipp Ther argues for the following definition:

According to Ther, deportation differs from expulsion in that a later return is not excluded. Moreover, it always takes place within the dominion of a state.

The geographer Peter Meusburger equates expulsion with ethnic cleansing and defines it as “the expulsion of the population from their homeland by force or other means of coercion beyond the borders of the expelling state”.

Historians Stefan Troebst and K. Erik Franzen define expulsion as “forced population movements of people (mostly religious or ethnic minorities, → national minorities) who are forced to leave their region of origin” associated with the use or at least with the threat of violence. They also include flight, provided it is permanent and enforced by force or threat thereof, and the expulsion or resettlement of a population group or minority from a state.

The migration researcher Jochen Oltmer defines more narrowly: Expulsion is a “spatial mobilization through violence without measures for resettlement”.

In addition, numerous terms are used that have certain connotations:
Expulsion involves forced abandonment of a place or territory due to expulsion or (state) persecution. Since there has been and continues to be political and social discrimination or purely economic pressure of various degrees in addition to massive persecution, it is often difficult to distinguish expulsion from voluntary emigration or voluntary large-scale movement within a state without proof of expulsion or threat of violence. There is no consensus in research on how to separate flight from forced migration.
Expulsion is an administrative act aimed at ending the presence of the person concerned in a country and denying him re-entry and further stay. In principle, expulsions place the interests of a state or a community above the welfare of the expelled person.
Deportation is the official execution of a