European Migration Series
© Julie Goucher, August 2022

This post is part of a series about European Migration. You can read the complete series HERE.

Probably the most obvious example of enforced migration is that of the Jewish population through the Nazi years. Moved to locations at the whim of a regime that did not look upon, nor treat those of different faiths, or lifestyles, the same as those deemed “perfect’. Those taken to other parts of Europe during the Second World War as “slave labour” are also included here.

Another significant example is that of those enslaved, taken from their countries or locations and moved to other areas or countries, many of those locations governed by European Empires.

There are other examples, where intolerance to a way of life, such as that of the Roma or Traveller community forcing a group of people, on a mass scale to choose between adapting to the norm, or moving on. I will be covering Roma and Travellers and many others later in this series.

Border changes, are often the catalyst for enforced migration, through a demonstrative way of intolerance – other examples are the mass movement of peoples following the independence of India from Britain, or the treatment of the Greeks, following border changes with Bulgaria, and there are many other examples.

Providing a group of people with a choice of conform or imprisonment (or worse), is not inclusive, and whilst on the face of it, it does not seem to be enforcement, it is.