Editing Population transfer (section)

{{Short description|Movement of a large group of people from one region to another}}
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{{Immigration sidebar}}
{{For|resettlement of UNHCR refugees|Third country resettlement}}
{{Other uses|Resettlement (disambiguation){{!}}Resettlement}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2022}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0131, Aussiedlung von Polen im Wartheland.jpg|thumb|250px|Beginning of ''[[Lebensraum]]'', the [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Nazi German expulsion of Poles]] from [[Reichsgau Wartheland|central Poland]], 1939]]

'''Population transfer''' or '''resettlement''' is a type of [[mass migration]] that is often imposed by a state policy or international authority. Such mass migrations are most frequently spurred on the basis of [[ethnicity]] or religion, but they also occur due to [[Development-induced displacement|economic development]]. Banishment or [[exile]] is a similar process, but is forcibly applied to individuals and groups. Population transfer differs more than simply technically from individually motivated [[human migration|migration]], but at times of [[list of wars|war]], the act of fleeing from danger or [[famine]] often blurs the differences.

Often the affected population is [[Forced displacement|transferred by force]] to a distant region, perhaps not suited to their way of life, causing them substantial harm. In addition, the process implies the loss of [[Real property|immovable property]] and substantial amounts of movable property when rushed. This transfer may be motivated by the more powerful party's desire to make other uses of the land in question or, less often, by security or disastrous environmental or economic conditions that require relocation.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The first known population transfers date back to the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]] in the [[13th century BC|13th century BCE]], with forced resettlement being [[resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire|particularly prevalent during the Neo-Assyrian Empire]]. The single largest population transfer in history was the [[Partition of India]] in 1947 that involved up to 12 million people in [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab Province]] with a total of up to 20 million people across [[British Raj|British India]],<ref name="Zamindar2013">{{cite book |chapter=India–Pakistan Partition 1947 and forced migration |author=Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar |title=The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration |chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm285 |date=4 February 2013 |doi=10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm285 |isbn=9781444334890 |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122014723/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm285 |quote=Some 12 million people were displaced in the divided province of Punjab alone, and up to 20 million in the subcontinent as a whole. |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Springer Science & Business Media">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGiSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |title=Population Redistribution and Development in South Asia |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2012 |isbn=978-9400953093 |page=6 |access-date=7 September 2017}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Rupture in South Asia |url=http://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bab0.pdf |publisher=United Nations High Commission for Refugees |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=11 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311071256/http://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bab0.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Dr Crispin Bates">{{cite web |title=The Hidden Story of Partition and its Legacies |author=Dr Crispin Bates |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/partition1947_01.shtml |website=BBC |date=3 March 2011 |access-date=16 January 2021 |archive-date=1 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210101152834/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/partition1947_01.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> with the second largest being the [[flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|flight and expulsion of Germans after World War II]], which involved more than 12 million people.

Before the forcible deportation of Ukrainians (including [[Child abductions in the Russo-Ukrainian War|thousands of children]]) to Russia during the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]],<ref name="BBCUkraine">{{Cite news |date=2023-03-16 |title=Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia is war crime - UN |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64985009 |access-date=2023-03-17}}</ref><ref name= "EuronewsUkraine" /> the last major population transfer in Europe was the deportation of 800,000 ethnic [[Albanians]] during the [[Kosovo War]] in 1999.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://icty.org/x/cases/djordjevic/cis/en/cis_djordjevic_en.pdf |title= CASE INFORMATION SHEET: (IT-05-87/1) VLASTIMIR ĐORĐEVIĆ |access-date=2013-12-22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204094755/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/djordjevic/cis/en/cis_djordjevic_en.pdf |archive-date=2013-12-04 }}</ref> Moreover, some of the largest population transfers in Europe have been attributed to the [[special settlements in the Soviet Union|ethnic policies of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin]].

Population transfers can also be imposed to further [[development-induced displacement|economic development]], for instance China relocated 1.3 million residents in order to  construct  the [[Three Gorges Dam]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wee |first=Sui-Lee |date=August 22, 2012 |title=Thousands being moved from China's Three Gorges - again |website=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/business/environment/thousands-being-moved-from-chinas-three-gorges-again-idUSBRE87L0ZX/ }}</ref>