What does it mean to be a refugee? An animated educational video from TED Ed explains the theme of refugees and migrants.
Benedetta Berti and Evelien Borgman explore the themes of migration and refugees in a video created in cooperation with TED Ed, an online platform that's part of the US Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference series whose "mission is to spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students around the world".
The animated video highlights that "more than 60 million people in the world have been forced to flee from wars, violence, and persecution", the majority of whom "left their own home but are still in their country of origin". The narrator in the video explains how there is "a lot of confusion about the difference in the terms 'migrant' and 'refugee'.
Usually, the term migrant is attributed to people who leave their country for reasons that aren't tied to persecution, such as economic reasons, natural disasters or food insecurity. Whether right or wrong, international law recognizes only those as refugees who flee from war and violence.
The video lesson highlights that "often refugees stay for dozens of years in refugee camps", and that once they arrive in their destination country "they are victims of discriminatory treatment" and that "too many refugee children don't go to school due to lack of funds for educational programmes".