Refugees, asylum seekers, migrants are temporary political labels and not an identity
Borders are not just outlines on a map we had to learn by heart in school. They are like red and yellow penalty cards, they are like coffee machines with filters, they are part of a system we benefit from and others don’t, they are borders filled with security, and while for some people these borders mean security for others they are dangerous. To some they mean freedom, others associate distress and anxiety. To you borders mean nothing because you can move freely, to others they are a huge barrier. To some it could mean risking lives to cross a border, to others a border is just another obstacle in their path. And to others they mean all of it.
You see, borders are not just black lines on a map.
Once these “irregular” migrants get caught at a border they are stuffed into categories like files at an office: war refugee, asylum seeker, lgtbq+ refugee, political refugee, economic migrant, illegal, legal, climate change refugee, stateless, or all above. The point is that the mentioned categories do not do these people justice, their lives, their reality is being narrowed down to one category. Then the system decides if they deserve to stay or if they will be deported to a place they had to leave and until that decision is made they are left in a limbo for weeks, months or even years. Remember, nobody leaves their comfort zone, their home, “unless home is the mouth of a shark” and nobody leaves one uncertainty to live another life of uncertainty.
So you may read these lines and feel sorry for those people and while your empathy is important it will not help people to actually live a life with dignity. Why do we have to feel sorry for someone in the first place in order for them to have access to a dignified life? They deserve to have access to their rights without us feeling pity for them. Why do people need articles and photographs that showcase their odyssey?
Why do people need to see children crying, families torn apart, Alan Kurdi washed to shore, boats filled with way too many people, people being trafficked, tortured and raped. What many forget: this is just one part of their life, this is not who they are. This is just a fragment of their lives, we don’t know who these people are and yet many think they can put all refugees in one box, in one good ole category.
And we have been flooded with this news to the extent that many don’t really care anymore, it doesn’t affect them anymore. Do you realize that some journalists and photographers live off of these stories while the person telling them will never see a dime? At the end of the day, they are for you to buy and consume. If the readers demand more stories, they will be provided. That’s why sometimes our feed is flooded with news about refugees and sometimes not. Just because there is no news doesn’t mean there aren’t people crossing borders and seas. If it suddenly affects us that’s when we see it. Just like candy in the supermarkets shortly before holidays, the candy is always there but before big holidays they are displayed so we can’t miss it — supply and demand.
Why does the reader need to see the worst thing that has happened to these people? Because poverty porn and dangerous stories sell. Does the reader actually need this information? For the record, would you like to be exposed like that with your worst experience? And yes, it is important to highlight these issues but they have been highlighted for the wrong reason. The real issue is not the EU or USA receiving “so many” refugees, the so called refugee crisis. It is them investing billions in border security, funding these wars, selling weapons, getting involved in proxy wars, literally bombing the countries of the people that had to flee. It is because the West profited from colonizing many of these countries. Don’t ignore the fact that many of these countries are “developing” countries, because the West exploited them and while some countries went through more hardship the West thrived and became richer and only because of the concept of European/ Western supremacy. That also means you and I (children of refugees) have profited from globalization and this exploitation. It hurts because maybe your family is from one of these exploited nations but years later somehow we profit from this system.
Do not ignore the fact that the EU is funding countries, such as Turkey, Morocco and Libya, in order to stop people from seeking refuge in Europe. While the EU is funding those countries they ignore the human rights abuses of migrants and refugees (torture, sexual abuses, illegal detention, letting people drown at sea, etc.). E.g.: Since 2014 €338 million have been mobilized on migration-related projects and €91.3 million have been spent on training and equipping Libya’s coast guard, among other things.
Countries in “developed” regions hosted 16% of refugees, while one third of the global refugee population (6.7 million people) was in the “least developed” countries (source: UNHCR). Let that sink in. To put everything into perspective in 2017, only about 0.3 per cent of the global population was a refugee.
And about 80% of refugees live in countries neighboring their countries of origin, so not everyone is headed to Europe or the US, most of them head to Uganda, Turkey, Sudan, Peru, Jordan, Iran, Kenya and Pakistan. Germany is the only European country among this list. (Source: UNHCR).
The problem is not that suddenly people are seeking refuge, it’s politics. Once a person enters a country “illegally” they are considered criminals because that person “broke the law” to enter the country. That is his/her crime and it probably won’t be the last “crime” that person will commit because they will keep having to lie, trying to make their stories sound worse than they already are so asylum is granted; to hide from authorities, be undocumented and work without paying taxes.
Because to some having more border patrols means security (from what I do not know), but to others it means taking other routes, routes less guarded, ergo felonious actions. It also means putting vulnerable people in more perilous situations, increasing border security increases the risk for smugglers and human rights abuses like improvised camps, no access to basic rights like food and running water, gender-based violence etc. the list is endless. And if you think that border security is only helping and that less people have tried entering European countries, well it is not as simple as that: “In 2018, there were fewer than 150,000 new arrivals to Europe, down from more than a million in 2015. However, while the number of people arriving in Europe has fallen, the number of migrant deaths has risen, as heightened security has compelled people to reach Europe’s shores through more dangerous means.
On the other side we hear politicians and their supporters talk about “European/American values”. Some define these values as the need to support refugees because we are all one big melting pot whereas the other side’s discourse is about how refugees are invading the West with their religion, cultures, stealing jobs and how they are rapists and criminals. To some, European/American values means unity and economic power but to others it is just a huge wall they’re trying to break down.
And yet here we are, we have read all these horrible stories of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Senegal, Venezuela, etc., but Germany still deports Afghans back to Afghanistan, the US still deports Mexicans back to Mexico. Because they are the decision makers. They decide who deserves to stay and who is not worthy of their mercy. As long as there are wars, as long as other countries sell weapons, there will be people leaving their country and fleeing to the country that jeopardized their home and future.
Expenditure of EU on border security:
EU plans to spend €34.9bn for the next budget cycle (2021–27)
Some European arms companies (e.g. Thales, Airbus & Leonardo) profit from the huge growth in the EU’s border budgets. These large companies are increasingly influential in shaping EU policy and encouraging the bloc to boost security efforts but heavy militarization of Europe’s borders only puts already vulnerable migrants in even greater jeopardy.
- Thales produces radar and sensor equipment and is currently developing border surveillance infrastructure for EUROSUR, the European Border Surveillance System.
- Italian arms firm Leonardo was awarded a €67.1m ($73.7m) contract in 2017 by the European Maritime Safety Agency to supply drones for EU coastguard agencies.
This is just another market opportunity for businesses. Businesses over human rights.
- 2010: $2.96B
- 2019: $4.7B
Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Spending US:
- 2010 — CBP: $11.5B, ICE: $5.7B
- 2019 — CBP: $14.7B, ICE: $7.6B
