ABSTRACT
The United Nations (1995) has estimated that 70 to 100 million persons in the world today are displaced as a result of widespread political instability, regional and national conflicts, war, genocide, social and economic upheaval, poverty, natural disasters, deportation, and population increases. It should be noted that there is a distinction between displaced persons with regards to “forced” or “free” migration (Murphy, 1977) whereby refugees are involuntarily forced to relocate, while immigrants voluntarily choose to leave their communities or countries. Refugees consist of more than 26 million people worldwide (Balian, 1997). Despite growing numbers of refugees, many countries are increasingly reluctant to resettle them, resulting in governments more rigidly interpreting the 1951 United Nations Convention governing the determination of refugee status Jupp, 1994).
