New Reality

Internally Displaced Persons, as defined by international institutions, generally refers to refugees uprooted by civil war or natural disasters who still remain in their country of origin, but those forced to migrate due to development practices also qualify as IDPs. While development of megadams, agricultural plantations, mines, and other industrial projects often displace indigenous populations, we have yet to apply the term IDP to those displaced by economic policies under the new world order.

As many of the areas plagued by the problems of IDPs were propelled into violent conflict by IMF and World Bank policies to implement privatization, those displaced by concurrent state austerity measures would likely soon surpass the present global estimate of 25 million conventional IDPs. Just because we haven't erected Red Cross or UN humanitarian camps and services for IDPs in the United States, doesn't mean that the concept isn't valid; it simply means that keepers of official statistics have yet to catch up with the new reality.