Given unprecedented numbers of forcibly displaced people, hundreds of millions of international migrants worldwide, and an increasing focus on climate-induced displacement, human mobility today is complex and often defies traditional labels.

Yet, academic, humanitarian, development, and state narratives still frame movement in rigid binaries, overlooking its nuanced realities.

In a paper published in Migration Studies, Feinstein Senior Researcher Dr. Evan Easton-Calabria and co-author Caitlin Sturridge present a framework to explore the grey areas or ‘transitions’ between mobility and displacement.

This framework furthers understanding of whether, how, and under what circumstances people may transition between voluntary migration and forced displacement.

Using two case studies of internally displaced people in Mozambique and pastoralists and semi-pastoralists in Ethiopia, the authors illustrate the transitions that occur between migration and displacement.

Exploring mobility and displacement as dynamic, rather than fixed, categories can enable more thorough understanding of mobile and displaced people’s experiences, livelihoods, and identities.

Read the open-access paper in Migration Studies.