# What other forced relocations of more than 11 million people have occurred in history?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forced-relocations-of-more-than-11-million-people-have-occurred-in-history/764224>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 28, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forced-relocations-of-more-than-11-million-people-have-occurred-in-history/764224 "2016-08-28T00:31:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forced-relocations-of-more-than-11-million-people-have-occurred-in-history/764224/41 "2016-08-29T19:10:30Z")

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> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> In sheer numbers it would be the largest such expulsion. But as a proportion of population the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in the early 17th century ( where disputably as much as 4% of the combined population of the Spanish crown and maybe a third of Valencia’s population was lost ) and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the early 20th century would be actions of comparable scope.

And the expulsion of the Moriscos didn’t work out very well for Spain. The expelled population happened to be the most productive agriculturalists in the country, and also included most of the best craftsmen/artisans. The expulsion resulted in a bunch of excellent, arable land with nobody left to work it productively, and a major decline in quality, exportable manufactured products.

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**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forced-relocations-of-more-than-11-million-people-have-occurred-in-history/764224/42 "2016-08-29T19:39:29Z")

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> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> I don’t have a direct quotation from him, and it looks like I was off by a year: two years of taking office, not one. Here’s the [LA Times’ summary](http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-deport-20160822-snap-story.html):

Ah, I was probably thwarted by using “1 year” in my search. I just did a search on “2 years” and found [this](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-it-would-take-up-to-2-years-to-deport-millions-of-undocumented/):

> [@](#):
>
> “I think it’s a process that can take 18 months to two years if properly handled,” Trump said in a conference call with members of the Alabama Republican Party late Thursday night.

12-24 months, at least in that quote from about a year ago.

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-forced-relocations-of-more-than-11-million-people-have-occurred-in-history/764224/43 "2016-08-29T20:53:37Z")

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76 million people go through O’Hare each year (2015 stats). If people can be “persuaded” to leave voluntarily, I don’t think a mass exodus over a year or two would be a strain on the transportation system. (It would massively disrupt the economy, however.)

I guess the question is whether from a legal standpoint congress could pass a law severely shortening the deportation process, or whether it would be found unconstitutional?

I’m thinking that challenges to Canada’s deportation process have produced multi-year backlogs, and we don’t have anywhere near the problem the USA does. Most problems in Canada are with bogus / questionable refugee claims. Once a person claims to be a refugee, the whole process has to be followed to determine the truth of that claim… then appeals, etc. I think that Canada now has a list of countries you cannot claim to be a refugee from, not sure how that one played out in the courts.

Of course, the advantage Trump would face concerning refugees, is that most people who have been in the USA several years might have difficulty claiming/proving they are still in danger where they came from.

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