E/CN.4/1503 page 43
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93. In discussing "push" and "pull" factors, we have alluded to
the economic disparities between countries even of the same region and continent, to discrepancies in the provision of aid
and even of humanitarian assistance from one area to another.
It seems increasingly important that standards of living should
not remain so low that people see no alternative but to move. Economic distress ought to be capable of resolution if there
are no major political factors to prevent a solution being
arrived at.
94.
These considerations should be viewed against the fact
that the South is now coping with many
with many more refugees/migrants
than the North. Not only are the short-term effects often
serious for the receiving country in terms of sudden humani-
tarian need, impact on local markets of increased demand, especially for food, job competition and so forth, but large
influxes
and do divert attention, resources, energies
and time away from development projects. They may set back years of effort aimed at changing conditions in some of the
less developed countries, disrupt the fragile political base for many régimes and even alter the ethnic composition of the
population.
95.
can
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No wonder that mass movements have become yet another
catalyst in the North-South polarization. The South feels that its refugees get less, certainly on a per capita basis,
than is the case in the North. One OAU observer at UNHCR's
Executive Committee once suggested that a whole village could be
settled in Africa for the cost of individual care and maintenance for a handicapped case in Europe or Latin America! This is also the subject of dissatisfaction between regions of the South:
Africa feels that it has been getting too little
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