26th March 2021
WRITING SAMPLE: Needs Statement for a Grant Application
The forced displacement of people–otherwise termed as migration–is certainly not a new phenomenon, and yet it continues to be the subject of debate among policymakers and citizens of receiving countries. Crossing national borders to work is one of the key motivations behind international migration, whether driven by economic inequalities, seeking employment, or both (“Migration Data Portal”, 2020). But there are also millions of refugees who have been driven away from their home countries due to conflict, violence and climate change (Edmond, 2020). Refugees, in particular, have had to live through a range of traumatic experiences, which have only been exacerbated by harsher immigration laws in countries like the United Kingdom, or by the inhumane separation of migrant children from their parents such as what is being done in the United States. Studies reveal that the number of refugees will only continue to rise (Fazel & Stein, 2002). And as people fleeing from war and poverty refuse to leave their family behind, this means that more and more children will be exposed to a host of threats. To put this in context: one per cent of the world's population–79.5 million people–had been uprooted and forcibly displaced by the end of 2019 (USA for UNHCR, n.d.). In 2018, over half of the number of refugees were children (Cumming-Bruce, 2019). Consequently, the need to protect children forced into this situation could not be more urgent.