Migration is a term that describes the movement of populations between two areas. When a person moves to a new country permanently, they are called a migrant. People often choose to migrate to a new country because they are searching for a better job, livelihood, or services, or because of family reasons. This kind of migration is considered voluntary migration. 

Refugees are people that have to leave their home country because they are in danger of persecution because of their ethnicity, religion, nationality, or political opinion. The difference between voluntary migrants and refugees is that the latter do not necessarily want to leave their home country, but have to do so to protect their safety or the safety of their friends or families.

Different nations have set quotas that are used to determine how many refugees each country will accomodate each year. These quotas are in place to divide the amount of refugees between different nations so that no single nation has to accommodate the large influx of refugees that have to leave their home nation during a conflict or epidemic. 

An asylum seeker is a person who seeks for asylum, or protection and a right of permanent residence, in another country. People often seek asylum because they are escaping political persecution in their home nation. A refugee and an asylum seeker are therefore not the same thing.


Europe received a large wave of refugees in 2015 due to the devastating conflicts in Syria and the Middle East .​