tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/immigration-crisis-19717/articles
Immigration crisis – The Conversation
2023-07-05T15:47:52Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208524
2023-07-05T15:47:52Z
2023-07-05T15:47:52Z
Criminals, terrorists and freeloaders: how migrants are portrayed in the European media
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534092/original/file-20230626-27-ce0qfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1920%2C1273&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More than two hundred migrants were rescued by the Italian Coast Guard in Pozzallo (Sicily, Italy) in February 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/pozzallo-ragusa6-february-2023over-two-hundred-2263223309">Alessio Tricani / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-greek-migrant-shipwreck-is-another-preventable-tragedy-at-the-borders-of-europe-207880">The sinking of a boat off the coast of Greece</a> transformed World Refugee Day, celebrated the June 20, into a day of mourning. There were an estimated 750 people on board, 70 were confirmed to have died and only 104 were rescued from the wreckage – leaving many unaccounted for.</p>
<p>In March, another shipwreck, this time off Italy, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230311-more-than-1-000-migrants-brought-ashore-in-italy-as-locals-march-for-shipwreck-victims">left nearly 100 people dead</a>. In almost all cases, these are people fleeing violence, war and misery.</p>
<p>A recent UN report indicates that the number of forcibly displaced people in <a href="https://news.un.org/es/story/2023/06/1521932">the world reached a record 108 million in 2022</a>, of whom more than 35 million are refugees in other countries. </p>
<p>The figures, driven in part by the war in Ukraine, even exceed those during the Mediterranean refugee crisis between 2015 and 2016. At that time, the migration crisis achieved a media presence rarely seen before. One need only recall <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Alan_Kurdi">the image of Aylan Kurdi</a>, the Syrian boy who drowned on a Turkish beach in September 2015, which became a symbol of the migration drama.</p>
<h2>Migration in Southern Europe</h2>
<p>As has been the case this year with the shipwrecks referred to above, the focus of this crisis was in southern Europe. To be precise, <a href="https://elordenmundial.com/mapas-y-graficos/las-cifras-de-la-inmigracion-en-el-mediterraneo/">the largest volume of arrivals moved</a> from Greece (the eastern Mediterranean, in 2015), to Italy (central Mediterranean, 2016 and 2017) and, finally, to Spain (western Mediterranean, in 2018). In June of that year, in Spain, <a href="https://theconversation.com/aquariusnotwelcome-la-acogida-del-barco-avivo-el-rechazo-a-los-inmigrantes-156894">the arrival of the Aquarius boat</a> marked a turning point. </p>
<p>These countries are the main gateways for migrants to enter the European Union. One of the demands made by these countries, and which is precisely behind the declaration of a migration emergency in Italy, is the need for migration management at the European level, as the burden of managing arrivals falls almost exclusively on the national authorities, when it is a European challenge. </p>
<p>This is compounded by the economic situation of these three countries. At the time of the humanitarian refugee crisis from 2014 onwards, these countries were still recovering from the harsh adjustment measures resulting from the economic and financial crisis that began in 2008. Their challenges are therefore particularly complex.</p>
<h2>Hate in the media</h2>
<p>This migratory reality has coincided – not accidentally – with the rise of discourses of rejection. These discourses have been popularised through social networks and are closely related to the rise to power of openly anti-immigration parties, such as Vox in Spain or Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d'Italia in Italy. </p>
<p>But the phenomenon of racism and rejection of migrants is very complex, and is often related to the representation of these people in the media. This is something that <a href="https://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EPI/article/view/80525">academic research</a> has been analysing for a long time, having observed that this representation tends to be stereotypical, negative and insufficient. </p>
<p>With these premises, a team from the <a href="https://www.ocausal.es/es/">Audiovisual Content Observatory</a> at the University of Salamanca has led a consortium together with researchers from the University of Milan (Italy) and the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (Greece), to understand the reality of media representation of migration in these countries, paying special attention to the hate speech that migrants and refugees receive. This project has recently resulted in a book, entitled <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=8968596"><em>Migrants and Refugees in Southern Europe Beyond the News Stories: Photographs, Hate and Journalists’ Perceptions</em></a>. </p>
<p>In it, the focus is placed on three main issues: the photographs used by the mainstream media when covering migration phenomena, the presence of racist and xenophobic hate speech on Twitter and YouTube, and the opinions of journalists specialising in migration.</p>
<h2>Observations of concern</h2>
<p>Firstly, the four predominant frames of representation of migrants in mainstream media in southern Europe were identified: normalisation, victimisation, social burden and threat.</p>
<p>It was found that mainstream media in Mediterranean countries are dominated by those frames that depict migrants as victims or as a burden. Moreover, negative frames (both those portraying migrants as a burden and those identifying them as a threat) have grown significantly between 2014 and 2019. Although the pattern is shared across the three countries, it is the Greek media that make a substantially more negative representation of migration through their frames.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the presence of hate speech on Twitter and YouTube, measured through computational techniques, appears to be small in absolute terms, and no very significant increase is observed over the last few years. </p>
<p>However, a close analysis of the underlying themes of these messages shows that hatred towards migrants is mainly argued through their association with criminality, terrorism and social spending. For example, fake news or incorrect scoops that declare –before having checked it– that the perpetrator of a crime is of foreign origin, or articles indicating that migrants are more likely to get more social benefits than locals. These narratives are often supported by this information then gets circulated online, fuelling unfounded but deeply embedded fears. </p>
<p>Against this backdrop, journalists specialising in the field are concerned. Although they defend their actions and their professionalism, they also recognise that there are bad practices and limitations, such as precariousness or lack of time, which prevent a more objective, accurate and humane coverage of migratory phenomena. There is a certain division between those who place journalistic practice above all else and those who defend the humanity and human rights of migrants and refugees as priority values.</p>
<p>A final element that helps to understand the real effects of these representations is that hate crimes recorded in recent years are steadily increasing in these three countries, but also in most Western countries, as indicated by <a href="https://hatecrime.osce.org">data collected by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe</a>. </p>
<h2>How to reverse this situation</h2>
<p>In order to achieve a more humane representation of migration in the media, we propose three strategies:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Greater awareness and sensitisation about these issues by different actors, both journalists and media professionals as well as audiences, including users of social platforms.</p></li>
<li><p>More evidence-based journalism, more verification and more in-depth reporting.</p></li>
<li><p>More personal stories, more participation of the protagonists, the displaced themselves, and more narratives that seek to identify with these people, avoiding their stigmatisation. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>This is necessary to tell the whole story, so as not to limit migrants to a mass in front of our borders. The migration crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows that there is another way not only to represent migrants and refugees, but also to respond on an institutional and human level. May we learn lessons for better responses to current and future migration challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Blanco-Herrero receives funding from the Ministry of Universities under the FPU programme (ref. FPU18/01455).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco Javier Jiménez Amores receives funding from the Junta de Castilla y León and the European Social Fund through a grant for the recruitment of research trainees.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Sánchez-Holgado receives research funding from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology FECYT.</span></em></p>
Research in Spain, Italy and Greece has analysed the representation of immigration in the media, hate speech on social media and the perceptions of journalists in these countries.
David Blanco-Herrero, Investigador en Comunicación, Universidad de Salamanca
Javier J. Amores, Personal Docente e Investigador, Universidad de Salamanca
Patricia Sánchez-Holgado, Personal Docente e Investigador, Universidad de Salamanca
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/114956
2019-04-05T17:39:16Z
2019-04-05T17:39:16Z
Nixon and Reagan tried closing the border to pressure Mexico – here’s what happened
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267845/original/file-20190405-180029-8r970h.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nixon's Operation Intercept in 1969 led to massive traffic jams. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just a week ago, President Donald Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1111653530316746752">appeared poised to take the drastic step</a> of closing the U.S.-Mexico border to both trade and travel. He said he wanted to stop the flood of Central American migrants entering the United States but also punish Mexico for failing to do so.</p>
<p>But on April 4, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-backs-off-threat-to-close-southern-border-immediately-says-hell-give-mexico-one-year-warning-on-drugs-migrants/2019/04/04/5fd35dfa-56f6-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html?utm_term=.d8b8dbddc057">president backpedaled</a> and instead gave Mexico a year to stop the flow of drugs across the border. If that didn’t happen, he threatened, auto tariffs would be imposed – and the president suggested he might still close the border if that didn’t work.</p>
<p>If Trump ever follows through on his threat and puts up a closed sign at the southern border, it wouldn’t be the first time. Twice in the last half-century the U.S. has tried to use the border to force Mexico to bend to America’s will. The ruse failed both times. </p>
<p><a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/history/bio/aileen-teague">I studied these incidents</a> while researching for a book on the origins of U.S. drug control policies and militarized policing techniques in Mexico from the 1960s to the 1990s. The history suggests that threats of border closure may be politically useful but are never a real answer to human tragedy.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1111653530316746752"}"></div></p>
<h2>Operation Intercept</h2>
<p>In 1969, President Richard Nixon <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/">launched Operation Intercept</a> in hopes of forcing Mexico to collaborate more fully with his administration’s policies to stop the flow of drugs – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1406640?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">one of his campaign promises</a>. </p>
<p>Although it technically wasn’t a full border closure, it required customs agents to search every car, truck and bus entering the United States. This <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/">caused long delays and a significant drop in economic activity</a> in both countries. Border businesses and politicians <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1406640?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">begged Nixon</a> to end Operation Intercept.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mexican leaders paid lip service to U.S. demands, based on my archival research. They highlighted the progress they had already made in their anti-drug operations and vowed to “continue with increasing intensity.”</p>
<p>Mexico even said it was willing to accept American anti-drug aid – such as aircraft and sophisticated weaponry – in order to help the Nixon administration fight its drug war. </p>
<p>In the end, however, <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/intercept17.pdf">nothing substantial</a> changed. The border reopened after three weeks. </p>
<p>The incident did, however, teach Mexican leaders how to appease similar American demands in the future by using the right “war on drugs” rhetoric. </p>
<p>But in practice, drug control was never a top priority of the Mexican government. And Mexico even used American anti-drug policies to its own advantage. For example, in the 1970s, the country received U.S. financial aid to stem the flow of drugs. It <a href="https://isreview.org/issue/90/political-economy-mexicos-drug-war">used at least some of the money</a> to suppress domestic political dissent instead. </p>
<h2>History repeats</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://time.com/3853971/1971-waron-drugs">war on drugs</a> also inspired President Ronald Reagan’s partial border closure in 1985. Aptly named Operation Intercept II, it suffered a similar fate. </p>
<p>The Mexican authorities <a href="https://www.dea.gov/kiki-and-history-red-ribbon-week">were unable to find</a> a kidnapped Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and the White House once again decided to use the border to force them into more vigorous action, closing nine checkpoints. </p>
<p>Ordinary Mexicans saw this border closure as yet another form of “Yankee imperialism.” They wondered how the disappearance of one agent could cause such an uproar when <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/">hundreds of Mexicans</a> had been killed as a result of our “war on drugs.” The abducted agent was later found dead. </p>
<p>Although the border was reopened within a matter of days, once again, the shutdown severely hurt the border economy – as well as relations between the two countries. </p>
<h2>Border closings make bad policy</h2>
<p>Both versions of Operation Intercept were severely disruptive while failing to motivate any meaningful changes in Mexican policy on drug control, border security or anything else. </p>
<p>Put another way, they showed that it is effectively impossible to close the U.S.-Mexico border, or to severely restrict traffic, for any extended period of time. The economic, social and cultural interdependence of Mexico and the United States is <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/intercept18.pdf">too deep</a>. And U.S. national security depends on strong relations with Mexico.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916/drug-dealers-criminals-rapists-what-trump-thinks-of-mexicans">Trump’s warnings</a> about an “invasion” of Hispanic rapists and gang members may appeal to his supporters. His threat to close the border may as well. But, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/us/politics/mexico-border-trump.html">his advisers apparently pointed out to him</a>, border closings do little more than damage economies and foster resentments. Immigration would dip but hardly stop.</p>
<p>Mexico and the United States are allies, not enemies. The way I see it, pushing Mexico and other nations to do America’s bidding on highly complex problems like drug control and migration simply produces more antagonism while failing to achieve the desired results.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aileen Teague has received funding from Fulbright, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Eisenhower Roberts Foundation. </span></em></p>
Both presidents brought border traffic and trade to a standstill in hopes of changing Mexican policy in the drug war. And both failed to achieve their goals.
Aileen Teague, Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110414
2019-01-30T11:52:52Z
2019-01-30T11:52:52Z
Europe’s refugee crisis explains why border walls don’t stop migration
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256135/original/file-20190129-127151-isr8h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrants on a ship intercepted offshore near the Libyan town of Gohneima, east of the capital Tripoli, in July 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/United-Nations-Deadly-Crossings/18c211ddbbf44b2ca5183939b556af80/15/0">Libyan Coast Guard via AP, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Trump has long called migration a <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-immigration-address-transcript-227614">security crisis</a>, but in recent weeks he has also referred to the situation along the southern border as a <a href="http://time.com/5497569/donald-trump-oval-office-address-transcript/">humanitarian crisis</a>.</p>
<p>As he ended the government shutdown in a televised speech on Jan. 25, Trump reiterated his <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/politics/trump-address-immigration-shutdown/index.html">claim</a> that a border wall between the United States and Mexico would save the lives of Central American migrants, many of whom are women and children. </p>
<p>“Walls work,” he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/politics/trump-address-immigration-shutdown/index.html">said</a>. “They save good people from attempting a very dangerous journey from other countries.”</p>
<p>As my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=83Lb0dwAAAAJ&hl=en">doctoral research</a> into Europe’s 2015-2016 <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1536504218776959">refugee crisis</a> shows, however, stricter border control doesn’t stop migration. Often, it makes it more dangerous.</p>
<h2>Open arms or closed borders?</h2>
<p>An estimated <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/08/02/number-of-refugees-to-europe-surges-to-record-1-3-million-in-2015/">1.3 million migrants</a> entered the European Union in 2015 — more than double the year before. They were seeking asylum protection from war, conflict and extreme poverty.</p>
<p>To put that figure in context, just <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/16/border-apprehensions-of-migrant-families-have-risen-substantially-so-far-in-2018/">half-a-million migrants</a> — including asylum-seekers, who typically give themselves up to border agents — were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018.</p>
<p><iframe id="pTk8M" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pTk8M/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Most of Europe’s migrants came from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. Generally, these asylum-seekers entered the European Union via Turkey, crossing Macedonia, Serbia and other <a href="https://reliefweb.int/map/world/western-balkans-route-refugeemigration-crisis-echo-daily-map-03092015">Balkan countries</a> by foot. </p>
<p>Well over 100,000 migrants from <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/08/02/1-asylum-seeker-origins-a-rapid-rise-for-most-countries/">sub-Saharan African countries</a> reached southern Europe by sea in 2015, crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.</p>
<p>Overwhelmed with these increased arrivals, national governments in Europe took dramatically different approaches to managing their borders.</p>
<p>Germany <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34108224">threw its doors open</a>. Almost <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKCN1201KY">900,000 migrants</a> arrived there in 2015 after the country <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-suspends-dublin-rules-for-syrians/a-18671698">suspended an EU rule</a> requiring that migrants apply for asylum in the first EU country they set foot in. </p>
<p>Migrants arriving at southern nations like Greece and Italy generally <a href="http://www.migrationpolicycentre.eu/greece/">hoped</a> to <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/emigration-asylum-destination-italy-navigates-shifting-migration-tides">continue north</a> to Germany. </p>
<p>Greece, however, was unable to process the <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5179">more than 850,000 migrants</a> who arrived to its shores in 2015. It built holding camps on its Aegean islands, where people stayed in <a href="https://www.refworld.org/country,,UNHCR,,GRC,,59b2663c4,0.html">overcrowded, often inhospitable conditions</a> for up to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/refugees-greece-reflect-year-waiting-171226173758364.html">two years</a> as their <a href="https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/greece/asylum-procedure/procedures/regular-procedure">asylum claims</a> were processed.</p>
<p>Other EU governments were openly hostile to refugees. Across Eastern Europe, countries along the Balkan route began to build and extend border barriers. </p>
<p>Europe had five border walls in 2014, built following the 1985 <a href="https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-agreement/">Schengen agreement</a> amid concerns about immigration at the bloc’s external borders. By 2017, it had <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/publication/building-walls">15 barriers</a>, according to the not-for-profit Transnational Institute, and a heavily <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/securing-eu-borders/fact-sheets/docs/20161006/eu_operations_in_the_mediterranean_sea_en.pdf">patrolled</a> maritime border. </p>
<p>Hungary, perhaps the EU’s least immigrant-friendly country, built a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/hungary-completes-second-fence-to-keep-out-migrants/a-38632459">high-tech fence</a> that uses thermal detection and cameras to monitor movement, with speakers that blare warnings in five languages.</p>
<h2>Walls make migration more dangerous</h2>
<p>Border walls have not stopped migration into Europe.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of migrants <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/30/tens-of-thousands-migrate-through-balkans-since-route-declared-shut">still cross the Balkans</a> to reach the EU each year – they just do so in <a href="https://www.msf.org/push-backs-violence-and-inadequate-conditions-balkan-routes-new-frontier">more dangerous</a> conditions.</p>
<p>Before the walls, migrants traveled in groups, with or without the help of smugglers. </p>
<p>Now, paying a smuggler is the only way for migrants to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/closed-borders-boost-people-smuggling-across-balkans/a-41467977">avoid border guards and pass barriers</a>. For several thousand dollars, smugglers bribe EU border agents, <a href="http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/7641/new-trafficking-hubs-emerge-in-the-balkans">hide migrants in trucks</a> or walk them across EU borders <a href="https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2018/02/europes-waiting">under cover of darkness</a>. </p>
<p>Europe’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1348224">refugee crisis</a> has now become a <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/emil/19/4/article-p335_335.xml">housing crisis</a>. </p>
<p>At least 10,000 migrants now live in <a href="https://www.msf.fr/sites/default/files/out_of_sight_130218.pdf">homeless encampments or squats</a> across Italy. And after the French refugee camp known as “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09581596.2017.1335860?needAccess=true">The Calais Jungle</a>” was demolished in 2016, nearly as many people scattered to makeshift camps or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/17/paris-uk-migrants-attacks-abuse-study">the streets of French cities</a>. </p>
<h2>Stopping migrants before they arrive</h2>
<p>Italy, where most refugees arrive by boat from North Africa, has tried to keep migrants out in a different way: It outsources its border security.</p>
<p>In 2017, Italy <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2017/02/02/news/migranti_accordo_italia-libia_ecco_cosa_contiene_in_memorandum-157464439/?refresh_ce">struck</a> a deal to supply the Libyan coast guard with vessels and anti-smuggling training. The agreement promised <a href="https://euobserver.com/migration/140067">US$325 million</a> if Libyan agents would intercept migrants crossing the Mediterranean and return them to Libyan detention centers. </p>
<p>Human rights organizations have <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/european-rights-chief-questions-italys-migrant-deals-with-libya/a-40916702">questioned</a> the deal, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/world/europe/italy-libya-migrant-crisis.html">citing</a> Libya’s political unrest and documented history of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/specials/africa/libya-slave-auctions">migrant enslavement and torture</a>. Returning migrants to detention centers in Libya may also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-libya/migrants-return-to-libya-by-italian-boat-could-breach-international-law-u-n-idUSKBN1KL1K4">violate international law</a>, since refugees <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/italy-deal-with-libya-pull-back-migrants-faces-legal-challenge-human-rights-violations">cannot be kept safe there</a>.</p>
<p>In my own interviews with African migrants in Italy who’d crossed the Sahara to Libya, many told me that they eventually boarded a boat there not as a final step toward Europe, but to escape imprisonment or torture in Libya. </p>
<p>Libyan coast guard boats have left many migrants <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/26/opinion/europe-migrant-crisis-mediterranean-libya.html">stranded</a> at sea. In September 2018, when a boat carrying 100 migrants capsized, Italy and Libya <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/world/africa/mediterranean-migrants-drowned.html">blamed one other</a> for the failed rescue.</p>
<p>Libya’s deterrence mission conflicts with the rescue operations of aid boats that bring migrants to Europe. Italy says rescues invite more migration, despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/debunking-myths-about-why-people-migrate-across-the-mediterranean-77814">research</a> <a href="https://blamingtherescuers.org/report/">disproving this claim</a>. </p>
<p>Last June, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/refugees-migrants-board-aquarius-set-foot-spain-180617054409193.html">629 migrants</a>, including 123 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women, were held at sea for over a week, unable to seek asylum or aid. </p>
<p>Malta, Spain and France have since repeatedly <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20180925-france-aquarius-migrant-ship-cannot-dock-port-marseille-french-minister-le-maire-says">closed their ports</a> to rescue vessels, refusing to bear responsibility for the migrants on board. </p>
<h2>Lessons for the US</h2>
<p>Irregular migration to Europe did decrease last year, primarily because <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/asylum-applications-euefta-country-2008-2017?width=1000&height=850&iframe=true">fewer Syrians are fleeing</a> their war-torn country. More migrants – <a href="http://www.globaldtm.info/Libya/">nearly 700,000 people</a> – are also being detained in Libya. </p>
<p>Migrant routes into the EU also continue to shift in response to closing borders. Spain, for example, has seen <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean/location/5226">sea arrivals increase tenfold since 2015</a>.</p>
<p>In my assessment, Trump’s crackdown along the U.S.-Mexico border will have similar results. There are signs of this already.</p>
<p>A decades-old U.S. policy of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/684775/summary">paying Mexico</a> to secure its southern border with Guatemala to keep Central American migrants out has merely made <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/GLOSOM_2018_web_small.pdf">the journey riskier</a>, according to a 2018 United Nations report.</p>
<p>To avoid apprehension by Mexican border patrol, some migrants get from Guatemala to Mexico by water, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/sep/15/migrants-mexico-human-trafficking-us-immigration-crackdown">on boats</a> that are often operated by traffickers.</p>
<p>As in Europe, migrants now increasingly rely on smugglers to get across the U.S.-Mexico border, who may charge <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/30/world/smuggling-illegal-immigration-costs.html">more than $10,000</a> per family. </p>
<p>That does not guarantee safe passage. Between August and October last year, smugglers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/11/migrants-abandoned-desert-smugglers-arizona-desert">abandoned more than 1,400 migrants</a>, including children, in the sweltering Arizona desert. Hoping to find safety in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-the-migrant-caravan-exist-and-how-did-it-come-to-be-105781">large groups</a>, more migrants are now <a href="https://theconversation.com/dozens-of-migrants-disappear-in-mexico-as-central-american-caravan-pushes-northward-106287">traveling in caravans</a>.</p>
<p>As the U.S. and the EU struggle to resolve their border crises, migrants <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/sais.2017.0029">will continue to flee</a> their home countries seeking protection. Heightened border control certainly won’t make them safer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Paynter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
After 1.3 million migrants from the Middle East and Africa came to Europe in 2015, many countries built fences or closed their ports. That has pushed migrants to take riskier routes into the EU.
Eleanor Paynter, PhD Candidate, Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/76671
2017-04-25T17:47:05Z
2017-04-25T17:47:05Z
Will Congress fund Trump’s border wall with Mexico? 5 essential reads
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184276/original/file-20170831-32045-xq1js1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of people march along a levee in South Texas to oppose a border wall.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eric Gay</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories.</em></p>
<p>On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised Mexico would pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>Mexico has stated unequivocally <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/28/trump-border-wall-mexico-responds-242084">it will not</a> “under any circumstances.” Now, President Trump is demanding that Congress include funding for the wall in the budget lawmakers hope to pass by the end of September. Trump has threatened to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-30/u-s-government-shutdown-could-cost-more-than-trump-border-wall">shut down the government</a> if lawmakers fail to do so.</p>
<p>What will it cost to build a wall?</p>
<p>Here are some insights from our experts. </p>
<h2>Building walls, 101</h2>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Why do we build walls in the first place and what do they accomplish? </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-cook-martin-144025">David Cook Martín</a>, a sociologist at New York University, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-wall-with-mexico-is-so-popular-and-why-it-wont-work-70047">explains that humans have been building walls for centuries</a>. But, he writes, they have rarely worked at solving the issues created by globalization.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Most importantly, walling the world distracts citizens and policymakers from complex problems.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Human and environmental impact</h2>
<p><strong>2.</strong> Of course, the primary purpose of this particular wall is to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border.</p>
<p>However, Mexicans – the alleged culprits of Trump’s first speech on the topic – are no longer crossing in massive numbers for primarily economic reasons. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-hiskey-347601">Jonathan Hiskey</a>, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-and-mexicans-living-at-the-border-are-more-connected-than-divided-72348">describes how immigration from Latin America is rapidly changing</a>. A wall would instead impact a new demographic of people who are fleeing violence and insecurity in their home countries.</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> A massive physical barrier would also impact years of cooperation on shared urban and environmental issues along the border, writes landscape architect Gabriel Diaz Montemayor at UT Austin. Instead of a wall, he offers a vision for <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-better-vision-for-the-us-mexico-border-make-the-rio-grande-grand-again-73111">a binational park along the Rio Grande</a> that would benefit the environment.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Traveling its length could become a trip comparable to hiking the Appalachian Trail, with opportunities to see recovering natural areas and wildlife and learn from two of the world’s richest cultures.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Montemayor’s article is also available <a href="https://theconversation.com/una-mejor-idea-para-la-frontera-entre-eua-y-mexico-invertimos-en-el-rio-no-en-un-muro-83077?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton">en español</a>.</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> In fact, cross-border communities in the U.S. and Mexico – so-called “twin cities” – have shared so much in common for so long, writes UC Berkeley’s city and regional planning expert Michael Dear, <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-and-mexicans-living-at-the-border-are-more-connected-than-divided-72348">that they could be described as a “third nation.”</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Unlike many people in the U.S., border residents do not equate wall-building with national security.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Funding the wall</h2>
<p><strong>5.</strong> If Congress decides to fund a wall anyway, how would they do it if Mexico won’t foot the bill?</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/who-will-pay-for-trumps-big-beautiful-wall-72321">Good luck</a>, writes Wayne Cornelius, a professor of political science and U.S.-Mexican relations at University of California, San Diego. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“One way or another, it is U.S. taxpayers who will pay for Trump’s border wall – not Mexicans. And we are unlikely to get our money’s worth.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on April 25, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Trump has threatened a showdown over funding his proposed barrier between the U.S. and Mexico. Our experts offer a primer – from a history of walls to costs.
Bryan Keogh, Managing Editor
Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + Society
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/67955
2016-11-02T13:27:41Z
2016-11-02T13:27:41Z
No direct flight: new maps show the fragmented journeys of migrants and refugees to Europe
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144084/original/image-20161101-8691-hxpz4c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tracking the long and complex journey of refugees and migrants. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Heaven Crawley </span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Politicians across Europe have talked about the arrival of refugees and migrants in 2015 and 2016 as if it were an unprecedented “event”, a single coherent flow of people “heading for Europe”. There is a focus on the beginning and end of peoples’ journeys – at the expense of almost everything in between. </p>
<p>Our new research with 500 refugees and migrants in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta reveals a much more complicated picture of protracted, fragmented journeys. Between them, our respondents travelled along nearly 100 different routes before eventually reaching Europe, sometimes having spent months or even years living elsewhere. The convergence of these routes in Turkey and Libya helps us to understand why the number of migrants heading to Europe <a href="https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/situation_reports/file/Mixed-Flows-Mediterranean-and-Beyond-Compilation-Overview-2015.pdf">increased to just over a million in 2015</a>. </p>
<p>Although there were two main countries – Turkey and Libya – from which refugees and migrants departed towards Europe, the “back story” to this migration was actually composed of an intricate network of varied routes. This can be clearly seen in the first of two maps we have created by charting the routes of 122 of the 500 people we spoke to between September 2015 and January 2016.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144079/original/image-20161101-15814-1bufmcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Routes into Europe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MEDMIG.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For some – mainly those from Iraq and Syria – the journey to Europe was relatively direct. Of the Iraqis we interviewed in Greece, 86% had arrived less than one month after leaving their home country. But for many, the decision to travel to Europe was a much longer process. This was particularly the case for Afghans arriving in Greece, many of whom had lived in Iran for many years or had even been born there, and for Eritreans arriving in Italy, many of whom had lived for extended periods in Sudan, Egypt or Israel. </p>
<p>For many people, the countries to which they originally travelled – including Iran, Sudan, Libya, Turkey – were initially perceived as places where they could settle and live. This is why the vast majority of the world’s refugees <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/576408cd7/unhcr-global-trends-2015.html">remain in low- and middle-income countries</a>. These countries include Turkey, which for the second year running hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees in 2015 – <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php">an estimated 2.7m</a>. This compared to Pakistan (1.6m), Lebanon (1.1m), Libya (up to 1m), Iran (979,400), Ethiopia (736,100) and Jordan (664,100). It was only when people found themselves unable to rebuild their lives in these places that they made the decision to move on. </p>
<h2>The decision to move, and move on</h2>
<p>In previous reports on the <a href="http://www.medmig.info/research-brief-03-boat-migration-across-the-central-mediterranean/#more-735">Central</a> and <a href="http://www.medmig.info/research-brief-02-understanding-the-dynamics-of-migration-to-greece-and-the-eu/#more-721">Eastern</a> Mediterranean routes, we identified the significant factors driving people to leave their home countries. These included conflict and political persecution, the activities of terrorist and insurgency groups such as Islamic State. Kidnapping and the threat of forced – sometimes indefinite – military conscription, as well as dire economic conditions were also factors. </p>
<p>But if we want to understand the dynamics of migration to Europe we need to differentiate between the initial drivers of migration from countries of origin and those which propel people onwards beyond the immediate neighbouring countries. Some of these drivers reflect the ongoing desire to be safe: Syrians, for example, living in Lebanon who felt too close to the ongoing conflict or feared they might be located by Assad government officials. Or Eritreans who had left due to indefinite military conscription but were unable to rebuild their lives in Sudan due to the civil war there. </p>
<p>But they also relate to an individual’s inability to build or rebuild a life due to a lack of rights and opportunities for employment, particularly where there is protracted conflict. </p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iran1113_forUpload_0.pdf">all Afghans experience varying degrees of discrimination in Iran</a>, the situation is particularly difficult for those from the ethnic Hazara minority who are more easily identifiable due to their distinctive physical appearance. Those we spoke to had <a href="https://en.qantara.de/content/afghan-refugees-in-iran-treated-like-second-class-citizens">experienced severe discrimination</a> in Iran, had no citizenship rights and faced a shortage of education for their children. Combined with increasing anxieties about what would happen to them if they were forced to return to Afghanistan where Hazara are subject to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36874570">increasing attacks</a>, this had made life in Iran intolerable. News that they might finally be able to secure protection in Europe propelled those we interviewed to move on.</p>
<p>Libya had also been a destination country for many of those we interviewed in Italy who thought that it would provide opportunities for work, <a href="http://www.migrationpolicycentre.eu/docs/migration_profiles/Libya.pdf">as it has done for many years</a>. But the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2015/05/libya-horrific-abuse-driving-migrants-to-risk-lives-in-mediterranean-crossings/">violent, chaotic reality of everyday life in the country</a> was very different from what they had expected. Those who had little intention of staying in Libya often found their journeys interrupted and stays extended as a result of kidnapping and violence. Others who had intended to settle, work and live in Libya came to realise that they would have to move on again to find somewhere safe. </p>
<p>It was the combination of these different factors – conflict and insecurity in the home country but also in the countries to which refugees and migrants then moved – that led to the convergence of flows in Turkey and Libya and, in turn, the very significant increase in arrivals during 2015, as our second map shows.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144081/original/image-20161101-18435-110ai8q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Routes into Europe converge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MEDMIG.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond push and pull</h2>
<p>Migration across the Mediterranean in 2015 did not consist of a single coherent flow but rather was made up of a number of distinct sub-flows from many countries and regions. It included both individuals and families with diverse migration histories and experiences. The situation has not changed in 2016 except, of course, that the route from Turkey to Greece and onwards into other EU Member States has now largely closed as a result of the <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-963_en.htm">EU-Turkey agreement</a> which provides for the return of those crossing the Mediterranean by boat. </p>
<p>The vast majority of those arriving in Europe during 2015 came from countries in which there was well-documented conflict and human rights abuse. But it is impossible to fully appreciate the complex drivers of migration without examining the ways in which political, economic and social factors come together to shape the experiences of those on the move. The longer people are on the move, the more complicated – and difficult to unpack – these factors become. </p>
<p>The solution to the “crisis” lies not only in opening up, and significantly expanding, safe and legal routes to protection for refugees and migrants, but also addressing the problems faced by those living in countries outside of Europe for whom access to rights, employment, education – and hope – remain elusive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heaven Crawley receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Franck Düvell works at University of Oxford, receives funding from ESRC, and is member of Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nando Sigona receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>
Many migrants would have stopped before they reached Europe – if only there had been the opportunities.
Heaven Crawley, Research Professor, Coventry University
Franck Düvell, Associate Professor and Senior Researcher, COMPAS, University of Oxford
Nando Sigona, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66451
2016-10-05T13:42:19Z
2016-10-05T13:42:19Z
Flights to Italy for refugees offer a humanitarian way forward for Europe
<p>Three years after a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24866338">shipwreck</a> off the island of Lampedusa killed more than 360 people, a programme is underway in Italy that seeks to save lives by providing an air route to Europe. </p>
<p>In contrast to <a href="https://euobserver.com/tickers/135327">moves in some European countries</a>, the <a href="http://www.santegidio.org/pageID/11676/langID/it/Cosa-sono-i-corridoi-umanitari-per-i-rifugiati.html">Corridoi Umanitari</a> (<a href="http://www.mediterraneanhope.com/corridoi-umanitari-0">humanitarian corridors</a>) project strives to put a more humane approach into action. It does so by providing flights to people in vulnerable situations from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe. </p>
<p>These humanitarian corridors are the result of an ecumenical collaboration between Catholics and Protestants, including the <a href="http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?&idLng=1064">Community of Sant Egidio</a>, the <a href="https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/europe/italy/fcei">Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy</a> (FCEI), and the Waldensian and Methodist churches.</p>
<p>As a pilot project, which began earlier this year, the programme is the first of its kind in Europe. It aims to prevent border deaths at sea by providing safe flights to Italy, and also to combat smuggling and trafficking networks. In so doing, the project seeks to allow people in so called “vulnerable conditions” to enter Italy legally on the Article 25 Schengen <a href="https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-types/#limited-territorial-validity-visas-ltv">Limited Territorial Validity (LTV) visa</a> in order that they arrive in safety to Europe to lodge their claim for asylum or protection. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140333/original/image-20161004-20221-1qayg9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘hotspot’ at Lampedusa where migrants stay after arriving on so-called ‘death boats’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vicki Squire</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People are chosen to participate in the initiative through visits made directly by programme organisers to camps in Lebanon. During these visits, interviews are held with potential beneficiaries to assess whether their situation meets one or more of five vulnerability criteria, ranging from experiences of conflict to serious health issues. The final list is then forwarded to the Italian embassy for approval, prior to people being taken to different regions across Italy.</p>
<p>Since February, around 300 people have entered Italy from Lebanon via this route. Another 100 are due to arrive on October 20. So far all the beneficiaries have arrived from Lebanon. Plans to extend the project to Morocco and Ethiopia are already underway, as are efforts to introduce the initiative to European states beyond Italy <a href="http://www.mediterraneanhope.com/corridoi-umanitari/humanitarian-corridors-the-italian-initiative-subject-of-a-parliamentary-motion-in-switzerland-1191">such as France and Switzerland</a>.</p>
<p>The Italian government has agreed to support a total of <a href="http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2016/02/1000-refugees-reach-italy-through-humanitarian-corridors.aspx">1,000 arrivals</a> via this mechanism over two years, though indications suggest it will be extended further. The travel and reception costs for the initiative is funded by charitable donations so it does not cost the Italian government anything.</p>
<h2>Beyond the refugee crisis</h2>
<p>There are some encouraging signs that these humanitarian corridors can provide a way forward from the so-called refugee crisis. First, the initiative broadens the understanding of who counts as a person in a vulnerable situation. It does not rely on <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/researchcentres/irs/crossingthemed/output/evidence_paper.pdf">questionable distinctions</a> between political or economic migrants, or between those who have been forced and those who choose to come to the Europe, because the vulnerability criteria used do not assume such clear-cut divisions.</p>
<p>Second, the initiative deepens the protection of vulnerable people by providing a <a href="http://www.unhcr.ie/news/irish-story/unhcr-calls-for-safe-and-legal-routes-for-refugees-as-mediterranean-death-r">safe and legal route</a> for those seeking safety in Europe, and by initiating support and integration measures immediately on arrival which are also funded by the programme. This is critical so that the rights refugees have to international protection are not <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Refugee-Protection-and-the-Role-of-Law-Conflicting-Identities/Kneebone-Stevens-Baldassar/p/book/9780415835657">diluted</a> through a failure to provide adequate information and services. </p>
<p>The importance of this was highlighted by one man I spoke with in Lampedusa from Syria, who arrived in Turin, Italy via this programme with his wife in June 2016. Comparing his journey with that of his brother who travelled via the Balkan route to Europe from Turkey last year, he explains how his brother was surprised that when the couple first arrived in Turin they had a house, a flat key, and freedom to come and go. His brother spent four months instead in a camp-like a prison when he first came to Europe. “He was not dealt with as a human being,” my Syrian friend told me.</p>
<h2>Who will step up?</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, questions remain as to the scope of this project and to the limitations of an initiative that is not enshrined in international law and so is not a legal duty on the part of European states. There are also potential problems in its linkage to formal procedures of applying for asylum or other forms of protection in Italy, and in the ongoing existence of visa policies that seek to prevent the travel of the most vulnerable. It’s also debatable whether civil society organisations should be taking responsibility for the provision of safe routes and initial reception measures for refugees, instead of the state.</p>
<p>So while this pilot project is as an innovative approach to the so-called refugee crisis, it needs further development if the safe and legal routes it opens up are not to be reduced to political gesture. As Paolo Naso, a political scientist at the Università di Roma who is responsible for the programme, highlighted at a press conference about it in Lampedusa on October 3:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is it only by chance that the only real experiment [in safe and legal routes] comes from two small independent churches and not from authorities or big institutions?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet the significance of providing these humanitarian corridors was readily evident as I strolled through the cemetery in Lampedusa three years after the boat disaster. Each year commemoration events are organised by the group <a href="http://www.comitatotreottobre.it/">Comitato Tre Ottobre</a>, involving survivors of the shipwreck, family members of the deceased, non-governmental organisations and the local community. While the event brings the survivors to the fore, it is always haunted by those who are not there. This includes those who cannot join as their status does not permit legal travel, as well as those who died on the journey or those detained after being rescued at sea.</p>
<p>It is not only the tragedy of border deaths, but also the criminalisation of migration that needs to stop. Safe and legal humanitarian corridors present one, very important, step in this direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicki Squire receives funding from the Leverhulme Foundation and from the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>
Safe passage for vulnerable refugees could help stop thousands from making a perilous journey across the Mediterranean.
Vicki Squire, Professor of International Politics, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/65679
2016-09-19T14:30:11Z
2016-09-19T14:30:11Z
World leaders lack the political courage to agree a fair global share of migration
<p>Whether fleeing wars, oppression, dictatorial regimes, extreme poverty, climate displacement – or whether simply seeking a better life – irregular migrants are among the most vulnerable people on earth. Crossing land and sea in hazardous journeys that take <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/iom-counts-3771-migrant-fatalities-mediterranean-2015">thousands of lives</a> every year, those migrants who do complete their journeys are frequently detained for lengthy periods or forced to live in <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-really-europe-refugees-in-calais-speak-of-desperate-conditions-45414">squalid conditions</a> on the margins of society. Even when they are afforded asylum or migrant status, they frequently experience racism and subjugation in the countries where they settle. </p>
<p>Blamed for everything from rising crime rates to falling economies, from terrorism to lack of housing, migrants are the whipping boys across the world.</p>
<p>Despite the dangers and suffering experienced by many, <a href="http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/social-issues-migration-health/international-migration-outlook-2016_migr_outlook-2016-en#.V9_M9rXL3m0#page11">migration is on the rise</a>. And given that it is one of the greatest challenges that we face as a global society, it is about time that innovative and holistic approaches are taken to dealing with this issue. But those who thought that such an approach would materialise at two global migration summits in New York on September 19 and 20 will be sadly mistaken. These meetings will make very little difference on the ground.</p>
<h2>Watered down</h2>
<p>On September 19 the <a href="http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/summit">UN General Assembly held a summit</a> at which top UN staff in the field on refugees, human rights, migration and human trafficking emphasised the need for a better and more coordinated response to global migration. Discussions were planned during roundtable sessions focused on issues such as the causes and consequences of large movements of refugees and migrants, as well as sharing responsibility and protection for those people. </p>
<p>These are all crucial matters, but the UN is already known for providing a forum for discussions of key issues. The real test is whether these discussions produce any concrete changes. Judging by the negotiations on the <a href="http://www.un.org/pga/70/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/08/HLM-on-addressing-large-movements-of-refugees-and-migrants-Draft-Declaration-5-August-2016.pdf">draft declaration on migrants and refugees</a> since it was published in early August, few real changes are likely to be implemented. </p>
<p>The draft declaration affirms humanitarian principles, but does little to go beyond existing words and phrases. There are legitimate concerns that the declaration may undermine countries’ existing human rights obligations towards migrants and refugees. By highlighting some obligations regarding water, sanitation, housing, food and health, and by stressing the need to protect vulnerable groups such as women and children, the text may be used by states as a tool for avoiding other human rights commitments to individuals within their countries. And by emphasising the role of non-state actors and the private sector, some countries may use the declaration as a method to shirk or pass on their human rights obligations. </p>
<p>These concerns are not in the abstract. Many countries are using the migration crisis to try to scale back their existing obligations. Some, like Denmark’s prime minister, have explicitly called for changes to, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/un-backlash-against-call-to-scale-back-geneva-convention-on-refugees">watering down of, existing conventions</a> to place fewer obligations on states. Others, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/theresa-may-to-warn-un-of-dangers-of-uncontrolled-mass-migration">like the British prime minister, Theresa May,</a> simply refuse to uphold their obligations while calling on others to do more to stem the tide of migration. May’s government is still refusing to allow 500 <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37249847">unaccompanied children</a> in Calais to fulfil their right to join family members in the UK. </p>
<p>The General Assembly summit will be followed by a second <a href="http://www.state.gov/p/io/c71574.htm">high-level summit</a> hosted by US President Barack Obama on September 20, at which he will ask world leaders to pledge more funds and more room for irregular migrants. Noble sentiments, indeed, but asking countries for money and spaces will not answer the fundamental question raised by the crisis: how to coordinate and implement a streamlined and global response to migration.</p>
<h2>A global approach</h2>
<p>What is needed is a system similar to the resettlement of migrants and refugees during and after the Indo-Chinese wars in the 1960s and 1970s. Then, the global community came together to determine the number of people that would be offered a place in each country. A managed global response enabled those migrants to reach their new homes in a safe and orderly fashion, and to integrate swiftly into their new societies. In contrast, today’s refugees fleeing the war in Syria have had to pay people smugglers in order to reach Europe in rubber dinghies and crossing the continent on foot. Those are the fortunate ones who have sufficient health and wealth not to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/14/life-refugee-camp-syrian-family-jordan-escape">languish for years</a> in refugees camps across the Middle East.</p>
<p>Those who work on the ground, from the <a href="http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/press-releases/general/ifrc-un-migration-summit-must-stop-world-indifference-to-deaths-and-suffering-along-migration-trails/">International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies</a> to the <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16344">UN Special rapporteur on human rights and migrants</a>, have long called for a responsible, managed global approach to migration. This would uphold the fundamental rights of migrants, would ensure that migration benefited the country and the individual, and would enable a coordinated and sustained approach whereby all countries took some responsibility for the crisis.</p>
<p>But those calls have been ignored by governments that are more concerned about securing domestic votes than they are about ensuring that all individuals have their fundamental human rights protected. Irregular migrants do not have votes in national elections. Irregular migrants do not have the ability to protest about their treatment – not if they need to remain in the shadows for fear of detention or deportation. Irregular migrants do not have the cultural capital needed to lobby domestic legislators. </p>
<p>So the domestic voices to which politicians listen come from those who claim that there is no room for new citizens, or those who claim that migrants commit crimes or acts of terrorism, or those who believe in nationalism and protectionism. And when those loud voices threaten to remove their votes unless politicians heed them, governments disregard the global in favour of the national.</p>
<p>These two summits provided a great opportunity for a new, measured and responsible approach to migration across the world. But, as many predicted would happen, that opportunity has been missed. Instead we have seen countries, regional groups and political blocs act in ways that are defensive and protectionist. The result: yet another UN text that will say little and do so in watered-down, tepid language. </p>
<p>A few states will continue to shoulder the financial and physical burden for many migrants, while others continue to shirk their duties and responsibilities. And, ultimately, what we will see is no change on the ground for the millions of people who will irregularly migrate in 2017.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosa Freedman receives funding from AHRC, British Academy, ESRC, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Society of Legal scholars. </span></em></p>
Discussions at two global summits on migration in New York will do little to do what is needed to change the reality on the ground.
Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56777
2016-06-10T10:08:07Z
2016-06-10T10:08:07Z
Is Europe over?
<p>In a few weeks, the British people will vote on whether to remain within the European Union.</p>
<p>All <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-academic-consensus-on-the-cost-of-brexit-being-ignored-59540">economic indicators</a> show that if the “Brexit” occurs, it will be a catastrophe. But for many, the main issue is not economics. It is a loss of sovereignty, which the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Exiter?src=hash">“exiters”</a>“ believe – or claim to believe – has been taken from them by the EU. They think that Britain can and should stand alone. </p>
<p>In my opinion, they’re wrong. And what’s worse – they are mired in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncertain-nostalgic-uncomfortable-and-bewildered-a-portrait-of-the-older-brexit-backer-60343">nostalgia</a> for a 19th-century vision of "Greater Britain,” the popular belief that the “mother country” and the colonies – in particular the Dominions – were really a single polity.</p>
<h2>What Obama said</h2>
<p>In an April <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/21/as-your-friend-let-me-tell-you-that-the-eu-makes-britain-even-gr/">op-ed</a> in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, President Barack Obama delivered a message to the British people. He said countries that make their presence felt on the world stage “aren’t the nations that go it alone.” </p>
<p>The meaning was clear: the special relationship between the U.S. and Britain depends less on “the blood we spilt together on the battlefield” and our shared “democratic values” than it does on the fact that a close association with Britain has afforded the U.S. considerable advantages in its dealings with the European Union.</p>
<p>On its own, Britain would be little more than a third-rate power. In this respect, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/06/what-if-britain-left-the-eu-and-could-be-more-like-norway/">the comparison with Norway</a>, which the champions of “Brexit” like to invoke, is entirely appropriate.</p>
<p>Obama also reaffirmed his belief in the legacy and continuing importance of the European Union, and of the need for a “strong, united, democratic Europe.” Many in Europe, however, and not just in Britain, fear that “Europe” as conceived in <a href="http://www.cvce.eu/recherche/unit-content/-/unit/en/3cb9e142-6ac4-4184-8794-fc3cf619cf33/3cb9e142-6ac4-4184-8794-fc3cf619cf33/Resources">The Treaty of Rome</a> in 1957 is nearing its end. </p>
<p>Some even believe that – threatened by immigration and multiculturalism – European culture, which was conceived at least two millennia ago, is now dying.</p>
<p>Is it?</p>
<h2>Today’s major threats</h2>
<p>Europe today faces four major and obvious threats to its survival: a shaky economy, Islamic terrorism, mass immigration and the rise of a belligerent and aggressively anti-European Russia. Of these, terrorism and immigration are the most immediate threats.</p>
<p>The initial response to both included the French declaration of a “state of emergency,” <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/paris-refugees-and-europes-hard-borders-illegal-immigration-attacks-paris-migrants/">tightening</a> of border controls and the proposed dissolution of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/schengen">Schengen</a> – the passport-free zone to which most EU member states belong.</p>
<p>These responses have proved <a href="https://theconversation.com/business-will-suffer-if-border-crossings-between-european-neighbours-are-shut-47022">detrimental</a> in a number of ways, and have done very little, if anything, to hinder “Jihadi” terrorists or <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/5/574db9d94/mediterranean-death-toll-soars-first-5-months-2016.html#_ga=1.189655340.640627375.1446721873">immigrants</a>. Almost all of the perpetrators involved in the recent attacks <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34832512">on Paris</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brussels-attacks-what-happened-everything-we-know-on-wednesday-a6947346.html">Brussels</a> were EU citizens. </p>
<p>What’s more, the Islamic State group is not targeting France or Belgium. It is targeting Europe, or more precisely, “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/25/world/map-isis-attacks-around-the-world.html">the West</a>.”</p>
<p>In 2015, IS issued a bizarre <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/islamic-state-publishes-how-to-survive-in-the-west-handbook-for-jihadi-secret-agents-and-its-hilarious">communiqué</a> tellingly <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/863.pdf">entitled</a>, “How to Survive in the West: A Guide for the Jihad Fighter.” It declared that the ultimate objective for the self-styled caliphate in Europe was the “conquest of Rome.” This does not mean the modern capital of Italy, which so far has been spared, but the symbolic capital of Christendom and of the ancient Roman Empire. </p>
<p>For IS, Europe is not a place so much as a culture based on the rule of law, freedom of expression, equal rights for all, racial and religious tolerance and a broadly utilitarian social and political order.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f2135be4-8ac5-11e5-a549-b89a1dfede9b.html#axzz4B05JXfEu">reason the perpetrators of the Paris attacks gave</a> for targeting a rock concert and a restaurant in an ethnically diverse district of the city was that these were the places where the irreligious and the “immoral” congregated. What these terrorists were trying to destroy was not so much a political enemy as it was a way of life.</p>
<p>In many cases, it is also a way of life that has rejected them. In this way, they look not unlike <a href="http://matthewconnelly.net/Science-2011-Hvistendahl-youth-bulge.pdf">the members</a> of the Provisional IRA, the Italian Red Brigades or the German Red Army faction of the 1970s: mostly angry young males seeking revenge upon a society which had failed to deliver what they had expected.</p>
<h2>The upside of newcomers</h2>
<p>The refugee crisis is often, wrongly, conflated with the threat of IS. The problem is not how to keep terrorists out – they are already here – but how to find a place for so many of the dispossessed and integrate them into their new homes. </p>
<p>The task is daunting. But, unlike the parents of so many of today’s Muslim immigrants who arrived as “guest workers” or economic refugees in France or Germany in the 1950s and ‘60’s, these new refugees have not yet seen their aspirations and those of their parents <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/poverty-afflicts-germanys-older-guest-workers/a-16944233">dashed by poverty</a>.</p>
<p>They have a better chance today as newcomers to an increasingly prosperous Europe – despite the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-31/understanding-europe-s-economy-in-100-billion-google-searches">economic crisis</a>. Far from being potential terrorists, the majority are <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-migrants-eu-labour-idUKKCN0YT1O6">skilled</a>, educated and determined. Furthermore, the EU has <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/inddem/docs/papers/The%20demographic%20challenge%20in%20Europe.pdf">estimated</a> it will need millions of new immigrants in the next 40 years to replace its aging population. Yet, only a little more than <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35158769">one million</a> arrived in 2015, and the influx has dropped markedly since the recent <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/13/migrant-arrivals-to-greece-drop-amid-eu-turkey-pac/">pact with Turkey</a>.</p>
<h2>What it means to be European</h2>
<p>The European project, in its present form, is less than 60 years old. </p>
<p>In many respects, it is less than 24 years old. But aspirations for some kind of European Union go back to at least the end of the <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/stella-ghervas/what-was-congress-vienna">Napoleonic Wars in 1815</a>. In 1871 members of the French National Assembly <a href="http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/soc237/papers/2016-02/Pagden_237_Seminar.pdf">called for the creation</a> of a “United States of Europe,” as did Winston Churchill in 1946 – although he did not then think that Britain should be a part of it.</p>
<p>The cultural, economic and political changes that have taken place in Europe since the signing of the Treaty of Rome have been monumental and, barring a third world war, irreversible. Despite the fantasies of France’s Marine le Pen or <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/nigel-farage">Nigel Farage</a>, all cultures are porous and malleable. The culture of Europe will probably change more radically in the next half-century than it has in the last millennium.</p>
<p>The EU is, arguably, the most innovative economic and political experiment since the creation of the U.S. in the 18th century. It is a <em>con</em>-federation, as compared to the U.S. federation. It divides up sovereign authority among its member states but – contrary to what the supporters of “Brexit” claim to believe – seeks to preserve the cultural and social traditions, the languages and the distinctive legal orders of each of its member states. </p>
<p>It is neither a “super-state” nor an empire; but it does represent a substantial shift in the way the nation-state has been conceived in the past. It is the future not only for Europe, but possibly also for Africa and parts of Asia.</p>
<p>As it faces what are inescapably the greatest series of crises in its very short history, I believe it needs not less, but greater integration. It needs more political cohesion. Above all, it needs a greater sense of participation on the part of its citizens, a greater understanding of just what it really means to be not British, or Spanish or French or German, but “European.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Pagden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In two weeks, Brits will cast a vote that could change the future of the European Union. A UCLA expert explores the continent’s greatest threats to unity.
Anthony Pagden, Distinguished Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50882
2015-11-30T11:03:36Z
2015-11-30T11:03:36Z
Germany needs to rethink what it means to be German to resolve refugees and ISIS
<p>The attacks earlier this month in Paris that led to the deaths of 130 people have prompted a range of responses across Europe and the world. </p>
<p>One of the darker reactions, however, has involved targeting the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911">hundreds of thousands of refugees</a> from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere who have poured into Europe in recent months, with political leaders increasingly labeling them as “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11997820/Paris-France-terror-attacks-isil-suspects-Syria-Raqqa-boming-arrests-live.html">potential terrorists</a>.”</p>
<p>Surely key to ISIS’ defeat, alongside the diplomatic, economic and military measures that can be taken, is how Europe handles this flood of refugees and whether it repeats past mistakes of failed immigrant integration. Calling refugees potential terrorists feeds into ISIS’ narrative that the West is at war with Islam. </p>
<p>It also ensures, I would argue, that ISIS has a steady supply of marginalized Europeans willing to kill and be killed for the cause. It’s no coincidence that those who committed the heinous acts in Paris hailed from long-neglected immigrant neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Germany is on the frontlines of this debate, as the European country that’s been the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/19/germany-multiculturalism-immigration">most welcoming</a> to today’s refugees but also one that still hasn’t made yesterday’s migrants feel like they belonged. </p>
<h2>Case study: Germany</h2>
<p>The German case illustrates how Europe’s leaders continue to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/19/germany-multiculturalism-immigration">misunderstand</a> the root cause of that sense of alienation that turned Belgium’s Molenbeek and Paris’ Saint-Denis into ISIS recruiting grounds.</p>
<p>Indeed, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in 2010 that attempts at creating a multicultural society have “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/17/angela-merkel-german-multiculturalism-failed">utterly failed</a>,” she didn’t blame government policy but the immigrants themselves for not doing enough to integrate. </p>
<p>Why do leaders such as Merkel fail to appreciate the important roles society and government play in integrating immigrants, with the result that they have become more susceptible to the likes of ISIS? </p>
<p>To better understand the answer, it’s helpful to turn to the behavioral sciences, my area of research. Many studies <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/90/4/578/">have found</a> that being in power increases the psychological distance from others, prompting leaders to favor information that supports their preconceptions and biases while ignoring important facts that go against them. </p>
<p>Max Bazerman, an expert on decision making at Harvard Business School, calls this perceptual distortion “<a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/08/missed-opportunities/">motivated blindness</a>.” In other words, European leaders are so preoccupied with “bigger problems” such as fighting terrorism that they don’t notice the struggles of millions of their citizens to feel at home and how that contributes to these problems in the first place.</p>
<p>It’s time for a shift.</p>
<h2>‘Hyphenated Germans’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/GesellschaftStaat/Bevoelkerung/MigrationIntegration/Migrationshintergrund/Migrationshintergrund.html">One-fifth of Germany’s population</a> has at least one parent who was not born in Germany, referred to as having a “migrational background.” Among this group, almost nine million were born in Germany, yet remain “hyphenated Germans” who must tick “yes” on job applications and official forms to the question: “Are you a German with a migrational background?” </p>
<p>The consequences of this kind of failure to integrate migrants – even when they’re lured by the government during a labor shortage, such as when Germany opened the door to hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens in the 1960s – were apparent on the streets of Paris. </p>
<p>Most of the attack’s perpetrators, including the ringleader, were <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/22a0f686-8c74-11e5-a549-b89a1dfede9b.html#axzz3rwrIBLaR">second-generation immigrants</a>. Subsequent police raids occurred in neighborhoods with a high proportion of foreigners and little integration. These were homegrown terrorists.</p>
<p>Is having multiple identities at fault? </p>
<p>A <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/01/14/0956797612450889.abstract">2013 study</a> of Germans of Turkish and Russian origin provides insight. Hyphenated Germans sympathized with radical actions only when individuals felt both identities were incompatible. In contrast, those hyphenated Germans who did not feel incompatibility did not. </p>
<p>In fact, studies have highlighted the numerous positive benefits of having multiple identities, such as <a href="http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/04/28/0146167210367786.abstract">higher levels of creativity</a>. Hence, it is not the hyphenation that creates a larger risk of individuals engaging in violent activities. It is a failure of integration of identities that is at the heart of the problem. That’s why an approach to fighting that involves shunning immigration will not work.</p>
<h2>Always an ‘other’</h2>
<p>I know well what it means to be a hyphenated German. I was born and raised in Germany. I am a German citizen. But because my parents emigrated from Poland in the late 1960s, I will never be just a “German.”</p>
<p>I learned that on my first day of elementary school. My teacher read the names of my peers aloud and, upon being called, my classmates rose from their seats and responded to questions about their favorite ice cream, color and animal. When I responded, my teacher said, <em>“Ach, du sprichst aber gut Deutsch!”</em> (Oh, your German is really good!). I wondered: “Why did she say this to me but not everyone else?” </p>
<p>This wasn’t an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern experience by me as well as others “with a migrational background.” For example, when the German media portrays images of Turkish people, it is either connected to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12090328">poverty, violence or problems of integration</a> – or as “<a href="http://www.arte.tv/de/altenpfleger-statt-arbeitslos/7065906,CmC=7066544.html">integration miracles</a>.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this struggle to gain equal status has gone virtually unnoticed in the upper echelons of politics because German leaders have failed to notice a shift in German identity. </p>
<p>Four years before she became chancellor, Merkel endorsed a policy paper that refused to identify Germany as a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/world/europe/anti-immigrant-marches-have-germany-looking-in-the-mirror-again.html?_r=0">country of immigration</a>. Only recently have some local governments begun to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12090328">change their portrayal of Germans</a> on promotional materials by showing different faces of Germany – without blond hair and blue eyes. </p>
<p>Often, immigrants don’t feel like <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/06/germany-refugee-crisis-syrian">they are a part</a> of what it means to be German.</p>
<h2>Leaders with blinders</h2>
<p>The country’s political leadership has only very little direct experience with what it means to be a hyphenated German. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/abgeordnete-mit-migrationshintergrund-extrawuerste-gibt-es-keine-1.1796576">Just 5.9%</a> of Bundestag members have a migrational background, and until 2013 <a href="http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article7346946/Hilfe-diese-Muslima-ist-gar-keine-Christin.html">none from</a> the party of Merkel’s CDU. It took until 2010 for a hyphenated German to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayg%C3%BCl_%C3%96zkan">hold a leadership position</a>. </p>
<p>Solutions to better treat and integrate citizens with migrational backgrounds begin with better recognition – removing the “motivated” blinders. Even those who are pushing to welcome refugees, such as Merkel, remain blind to the historical challenges of integration.</p>
<p>“Perspective-taking” is another behavioral science buzzword that helps us understand why putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is a necessary skill to understand the current plight of hyphenated Germans. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/17/12/1068.abstract">one experiment led</a> by Columbia Business School social psychologist Adam Galinsky, participants were asked to draw the letter “E” on their forehead in such a way that another person could read it. In order to draw the letter correctly, participants would have to engage in perspective-taking and realize they had to draw the letter in a mirrored way.</p>
<p>Intriguingly, participants who were made to feel higher levels of power were more likely to draw an E on their forehead in a self-oriented direction than those participants made to feel lower levels of power. </p>
<p>Individuals who engage in perspective-taking are <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/78/4/708/">less likely to engage</a> in stereotyping and thus <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0085681">more willing</a> to engage with negatively stereotyped individuals, such as immigrants and refugees. But because perspective-taking is a cognitively taxing process, individuals must be sufficiently motivated to do so. And this requires a long-term view.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102871/original/image-20151123-18267-1niamhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stereotype of Germans as blond and blue-eyed is no longer true.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Blond German via www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A fresh perspective</h2>
<p>The results suggest that even if Germany’s leadership recognized there was a problem, they wouldn’t truly understand what the problem felt like unless they engage in perspective-taking. </p>
<p>Consider that German politicians refer to the recent influx of refugees as a “crisis.” </p>
<p>A crisis typically describes a short period of intense pressure. In contrast, in Canada, a country with a strong immigrant culture, new arrivals are referred to as “citizens-in-waiting,” an acknowledgment that their potential to contribute to the Canadian economy and culture is real. Canada <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/for-canada-immigration-is-a-key-to-prosperity/article14711281/">benefits economically</a> by being <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-near-top-in-integrating-immigrants-survey-says/article568517/">one of the best countries</a> for immigrant integration.</p>
<p>Unless Germans begin viewing their hyphenated counterparts as viable future citizens, perspective-taking will be aggravated, fueling a vicious cycle of “othering.”</p>
<p>Preventing future terrorist attacks does not just require international action. It also requires a fundamental change in national policies, especially in Germany. </p>
<p>Giving a voice to refugees at home and making them feel like they belong could be the smartest strategy for defeating enemies abroad.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon M Jachimowicz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The attacks in Paris are putting refugees in the crosshairs, yet it’s the integration of these and past migrants that are key to the security of Europe.
Jon M Jachimowicz, PhD Student in Management, Columbia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50381
2015-11-11T10:49:26Z
2015-11-11T10:49:26Z
Human biases hold key to solving both Europe’s refugee crisis and climate change
<p>One of the predominant news stories over the past few months has been the migrant crisis in Europe. </p>
<p>Driven by civil wars, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911">refugees from</a> the Middle East and beyond are flowing into the European Union. Over the next 18 months, the UN <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20151001-unhcr-expects-more-refugees-migrants-arrive-europe-2015-2016">is expecting</a> more than 1.4 million refugees to arrive in the EU. </p>
<p>The swell will have many long-term implications, but governments and citizens are facing a more pressing question: what policies should they adopt toward refugees in the short term? Should they welcome them, reject them or something in between? </p>
<p>How they answer that question has a surprisingly lot to do with how we react to climate change. In both cases, a large chunk of the population embraces a view contrary to the overwhelming verdict of empirical evidence. Thus, understanding one will help us better understand the other.</p>
<p>I was discussing these issues with colleagues when I realized the similarities they bore to my own research, which involves studying why people fail to follow through with their intentions. </p>
<p>In my work, I often come across situations in which individuals act in ways that run contrary to what they want. For example, though many understand the necessity of acting in the refugee crisis, their actions fall short of their intentions. Personally touched by the current situations – both my parents were refugees – I sought out to understand what can we do about it.</p>
<h2>Refugees get a mixed reception</h2>
<p>While some government officials (most notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel) have welcomed refugees, others have actively opposed liberal border policies. </p>
<p>In some countries, such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/11/social-democrats-win-vienna-election-despite-freedom-party-gains">Austria</a> and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/26/poland-election-migrant-crisis-affecting-eu-politics.html">Poland</a>, polls have shifted rightward as certain conservative parties use anti-refugee slogans to leverage votes. The <a href="http://www.infratest-dimap.de/umfragen-analysen/bundesweit/ard-deutschlandtrend/2015/november/">public is split</a>: some citizens are open, others protest.</p>
<p>From an economic point of view, the case for immigration is strong. Empirical evidence clearly shows that refugees are a positive economic influence that can stimulate <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/economic-impact-european-refugee-crisis/414364/">long-term growth</a>.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/how-the-ilo-works/multilateral-system/g20/reports/WCMS_398078/lang--en/index.htm">report</a> published by the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN’s International Labor Organization concludes that “in most countries, migrants pay more in taxes and social contributions than they receive.” </p>
<p>Demographic trends show that many countries in the EU are aging too fast to maintain a healthy economy and that an influx of relatively young and skilled workers could alleviate this problem.</p>
<p>Of course, integrating hundreds of thousands of refugees into a country is not easy. But even Germany, the country experiencing the biggest swell, <a href="http://eu.boell.org/en/2015/09/02/joint-declaration-current-state-refugee-policy">recently declared</a> that “every euro we spend on training migrants is a euro to avoid a shortage of skilled labor.” </p>
<p>So despite the encouraging evidence, why does widespread opposition against the influx of refugees and their right to asylum persist?</p>
<h2>Climate change and human psychology</h2>
<p>To answer this question, it helps to understand why people oppose another hot-button topic: climate change. <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/?utm_source=The+Weekly+Pique&utm_campaign=cf7d4cd5ac-Episode+12%3A+Global+Warming&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4627876a86-cf7d4cd5ac-297062977">Study after study</a> has revealed a link between the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the increase in the average global temperature.</p>
<p>Yet many people continue to insist that the climate is not in fact changing. Why?</p>
<p>The answer to both questions may be found in their common dominator: human psychology. </p>
<p>Maybe because each problem shares a common basis, solutions to both have failed to be successful so far because they make use of an incomplete set of tactics. Even though the political tactics needed to solve each problem are different, we can create a toolbox that leverages what we know about psychological biases to help policymakers make better decisions about both issues.</p>
<p>Specifically, climate change and the EU migration crisis face a decision bias that psychologists call “intertemporal choice”: a trade-off between a smaller gain in the present and a larger gain in the long term. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2951242">research suggests</a> that we’re more likely to take $50 now rather than $60 in a month’s time because turning down a smaller sum today feels worse than gaining more later. Similarly, investing in climate change and refugee integration now will yield positive payoffs in the long term, even though the immediate payoff will be small – or may even result in perceived negatives, such as cancellation of school sports programs <a href="http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article146493413/Wird-die-Turnhalle-auch-mal-wieder-frei.html">because refugees are housed in sports facilities</a>.</p>
<h2>A satisfying status quo?</h2>
<p>Both problems are also hindered by the status quo bias. </p>
<p>When the current situation is sufficiently satisfying, it is difficult to motivate people to change. Most countries don’t feel the effects of climate change, much like the civil wars that refugees are escaping from are not felt in the European Union. </p>
<p>When we observe that the current state of affairs is adequate, we use it as a reference point to evaluate our decisions about the future. As a result, we perceive pro-environmental or pro-refugee decisions as a bonus but do not view it as necessary to change.</p>
<p>However, governments approach both problems very differently. When people talk about climate change, they typically cite scientific research to emphasize its threat to our long-term survival. Organizations and individuals use “green” branding to show the public that they are climate-conscious. We organize recycling campaigns, art exhibitions and concerts to raise money and awareness to fight climate change.</p>
<p>For the refugee crisis, supporters cite moral and humanitarian concerns to motivate people to welcome refugees. Action occurs largely on a national level, with coordination attempts futile at best. In this context, some countries step up and announce their responsibility, championing strong leadership to provide national solutions, whereas others shrink from action.</p>
<h2>Lessons for the migrant crisis</h2>
<p>What can the climate change debate learn from the refugee crisis?</p>
<p>One answer is leadership. Despite conflicts within her own party, Merkel has put herself at the <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/merkel-under-fire-as-refugee-crisis-in-germany-worsens-a-1060720.html">forefront of the refugee crisis</a>, negotiating within her own party and with countries across Europe.</p>
<p>In contrast, efforts to address climate change have been notoriously uncoordinated. The 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, to be held from November 30 to December 11, is the 21st attempt to achieve a comprehensive global agreement on the climate. To strive toward an effective solution in Paris, we may need a strong leader.</p>
<p>In addition, the refugee crisis provides climate change campaigns with an interesting illustration of the power of narratives. Note that Merkel <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlingskrise-merkel-verteidigt-ihren-kurs-gegen-kritik-a-1056101.html">quickly called</a> the refugee crisis a “humanitarian crisis.” Thus, people who do not support refugees can be labeled as inhumane or immoral. Instead, climate change advocates have historically drawn on the language of science, which doesn’t grip human psychology to the same extent.</p>
<h2>Lessons for climate change</h2>
<p>What can the refugee crisis learn from climate change? </p>
<p>In both cases, citizens are so preoccupied with the immediate costs that they may fail to appropriately recognize the long-term benefits. A smarter strategy should therefore make the payoff from investments in refugee integration feel more immediate and tangible, similar to the efforts of companies like Hive, which provides immediate feedback to consumers on energy-saving behavior.</p>
<p>Rather than framing the influx of refugees as a problem to be solved, policymakers should advertise its potential economic advantages by highlighting stories of successful refugees to make the benefits more tangible. Green champions abound in the political and organizational landscape; the refugee crisis needs an equivalent. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, European citizens with immigrant backgrounds have often fought so hard for recognition that their public image is disassociated from their heritage. A greater emphasis on international backgrounds may better highlight the possible gains that refugees have provided.</p>
<h2>A common source for biases</h2>
<p>Although it may not seem likely at first glance, many crises share a common source in human decision-making biases. Whether it is the refugee crisis, climate change or another crisis, the barriers formed by a preference for short-term gains and the status quo are hard to overcome. </p>
<p>Thinking about these problems separately can preclude us from realizing that the different approaches we use to solve them in reality should all stem from the same toolbox. </p>
<p>By understanding that many crises share psychological underpinnings, we can ultimately learn from each to solve all, both now and in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50381/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon M Jachimowicz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Most evidence shows that climate change is caused by humans and immigration is good for the economy. So why do many of us reject these notions anyway?
Jon M Jachimowicz, PhD Student in Management, Columbia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/49450
2015-10-23T03:13:23Z
2015-10-23T03:13:23Z
Lessons in refugee hospitality from the Horn of Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99190/original/image-20151021-15449-7dvsav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Yemeni girl holds a baby in a temporary shelter at the port town Bosasso in Somalia's Puntland after fleeing war in Yemen. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Feisal Omar T</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The unique response of the Horn of Africa region to Yemeni refugees could offer lessons to countries and regions dealing with similar influxes elsewhere.</p>
<p>Escalating internal fighting and Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen have led to an estimated <a href="http://www.unocha.org/aggregator/sources/80">21.4 million people</a> – more than 80% of its population – being in need of humanitarian protection or assistance. </p>
<p>More than one million people have been <a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-regional-refugee-and-migrant-response-plan-october-december-2015-0">forced</a> from their homes. Of these, <a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-regional-refugee-and-migrant-response-plan-october-december-2015-0">approximately 100,000</a>, both Yemenis and foreign nationals, have fled to seek safety elsewhere. The majority – about 70,000 – have <a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-regional-refugee-and-migrant-response-plan-october-december-2015-0">crossed</a> the Gulf of Aden, seeking refuge in countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti.</p>
<p>Access to territory and protection has been swift for Yemeni refugees arriving in the Horn of Africa. This provides a lesson in hospitality that would be well heeded elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Unique reversal of roles</h2>
<p>Yemeni displacement to the Horn of Africa is in some respects unique. Africa is a continent familiar with large-scale refugee crises. However, it is uncommon for those seeking protection in the region to arrive from elsewhere.</p>
<p>With the possible exception of South Africa – which receives a small number of applications for asylum from persons outside the <a href="http://www.lhr.org.za/publications/queue-here-corruption-measuring-irregularities-south-africa%E2%80%99s-asylum-system">continent</a> – those seeking refuge in African states tend to come from within the region itself. </p>
<p>What is even more striking is that the countries of asylum themselves – including Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia – are among the chief refugee-producing countries in the region. Prior to the outbreak of conflict, Yemen was itself host to some <a href="http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-regional-refugee-and-migrant-response-plan-october-december-2015-0">250,000 refugees</a>, mainly from Somalia.</p>
<p>The Horn of Africa is a region beset with poverty and insecurity. So how has it responded to this influx of refugees from outside? The Yemeni crisis provides a unique perspective on refugee protection in a region where refugee policies and practices have largely not been analysed. </p>
<p>The protection afforded to Yemenis arriving on African shores is far from perfect. However, several features of the African response would be worth highlighting to those in charge of refugee reception and protection elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Sound foundation for generosity</h2>
<p>The legal framework for refugee protection in Africa is one of the most advanced in the world.</p>
<p>The vast majority of African states are party to the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/3b73b0d63.html">1951 Refugee Convention</a>. In addition, Africa’s 1969 <a href="http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/Convention_En_Refugee_Problems_in_Africa_AddisAbaba_10September1969_0.pdf">Organisation of African Unity Convention</a> provides even more generous protections to those displaced from their homes.</p>
<p>The African Refugee Convention has been widely praised for its liberal approach to protection. It expands the definition of a refugee, broadens the principle of non-refoulement and endorses the principles of voluntary repatriation and international burden-sharing.</p>
<p>Implementation of the African Refugee Convention has been far from comprehensive. A lack of resources, legal capacity and political will continue to severely undermine protection in many parts of the region. Nevertheless, the convention’s humanitarian spirit reflects the often inclusive and welcoming approach of African states in times of crisis.</p>
<p>The Horn of Africa response to Yemeni refugees has been open, even welcoming, when compared with the reception of refugees elsewhere.</p>
<p>Access to territory has not been an issue. Horn of Africa countries have kept their borders open to those arriving across the Gulf. A representative of the government of Somaliland, himself hosting two refugee families, has expressed sympathy and messages of <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/yemenis-fleeing-somaliland-struggle-survival-150521100540616.html">welcome</a> for Yemeni refugees.</p>
<p>This reception of refugees stands in stark contrast to the blatantly <a href="http://budapestbeacon.com/public-policy/viktor-orban-immigration-must-defend/18191">defensive response</a> to migration of some European governments. </p>
<h2>Pragmatic approach</h2>
<p>Regions such as Europe have crafted specific and detailed mechanisms for dealing with refugee protection in situations of mass influx. In contrast, African states by and large have adopted a more pragmatic approach. Recognising the need for protection, many African states simply confer refugee status on a group basis to all those fleeing the affected zone. </p>
<p>Rather than closing their borders until a regional agreement on protection can be found, the governments of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan have all granted <em>prima facie</em> refugee status to Yemeni asylum seekers. This facilitates quick registration and the provision of assistance to those arriving with nothing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99313/original/image-20151022-8013-1ixazny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mounted policeman leads a group of migrants near Dobova, Slovenia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Srdjan Zivulovic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Role of customary norms</h2>
<p>State-based laws and policies are only one aspect of African regional responses to displaced persons in need. In practice, customary norms of hospitality and the generous responses of host communities may have even more of an impact on refugees’ safety. </p>
<p>A large proportion of Yemenis displaced to the Horn of Africa are living with local communities, relying on their generosity and hospitality to survive. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, acknowledged this in a recent <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/56122bd76.html">address</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a world where more than two-thirds of all refugees are Muslim, it is important to recognise that there is nothing in the 1951 Convention that is not already present in ancient Islamic traditions and legal texts.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Lesson for the world</h2>
<p>Displacement crises in Africa are generally considered less newsworthy than those in Europe. But they are no less devastating. In some cases, they provide an opportunity to reflect on how we might better manage such crises at the regional level.</p>
<p>Protection for Yemeni refugees arriving in the Horn of Africa is far from exemplary. Profound challenges remain. The lack of safe legal avenues means that the vast majority of those fleeing conflict in Yemen face perilous journeys.</p>
<p>Once they arrive, instability within many host countries means security is far from guaranteed. The lack of appropriate reception arrangements and a fear of removal or detention mean many refugees do not access formal protection channels. The shortfall of funding for protection and assistance in the region remains chronic. In countries where humanitarian resources are stretched beyond their limits, the regional response to the Yemen crisis remains only one-fifth funded. </p>
<p>Despite this complex and challenging protection environment, the response of many African states has been swift, generous and practical. The sense of solidarity expressed by governments and local communities stands in stark contrast to the responses to refugee crises being witnessed elsewhere. </p>
<p>Perhaps it is time to recognise Africa not just as a source of refugees but also as a (tentative) champion of principles of humanity and hospitality. These are principles frequently lacking when those forced to flee their homes and lives come looking for protection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49450/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamara Wood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Although Africa is familiar with large-scale refugee crises, it is uncommon for it to host people seeking protection from outside the continent, as is the case with thousands of Yemeni refugees.
Tamara Wood, Doctoral Candidate, Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/45482
2015-08-26T09:51:04Z
2015-08-26T09:51:04Z
What Don Quixote has to say to Spain about today’s immigrant crisis
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92450/original/image-20150819-10832-grkyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tilting at 21st-century Spain?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Don_Quixote_and_Sancho_Panza_3.jpg">Vitold Muratov</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1492, the Spanish Inquisition forced Jews to convert to Christianity or to leave the Iberian peninsula – on pain of death. Some five centuries later, in June 2015, the Spanish <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11687465/Five-centuries-after-expulsion-at-pain-of-death-Spain-grants-citizenship-to-Sephardic-Jews.html">Parliament</a> invited the descendants of those Jewish exiles to apply for Spanish citizenship without having to give up their current passports. </p>
<p>As the Catholic Church continued to establish its primacy at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, Spain’s Muslims, too, were forced to convert. </p>
<p>Called <em>moriscos</em>, these Muslims made up, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vXTs8jJiuu8C&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=moriscos+spain+expulsion+percentage+of+the+population&source=bl&ots=zIyTR99XlM&sig=1KHIN9d91M8RecLH6Hi0zXgLIV8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCWoVChMI_-GxpaW4xwIVA44NCh2e4wWU#v=onepage&q=moriscos%20spain%20expulsion%20percentage%20of%20the%20population&f=false">by some estimates</a>, approximately 4% of the country’s population. But they were not to be there for long. </p>
<p>By 1609, the royal expulsion had been decreed – the <em>moriscos</em> were ordered to leave Spain. <a href="http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/richard.hornbeck/research/papers/morisco_ch_dec2014.pdf">And they did</a>, in waves, between 1609 and 1614. To this day, their descendants have been denied the “right of return.” </p>
<p>So why are the descendants of Sephardic Jews allowed to return and the descendants of Muslim converts not? </p>
<p>Might the great Spanish writer Cervantes, whose second volume of Don Quixote was published <a href="http://ndsmcobserver.com/2015/04/notre-dame-celebrates-400th-anniversary-don-quixote/">400 years ago this year</a> – right after the expulsion of the <em>moriscos</em> – shine any light on this current debate?</p>
<h2>Richly textured writing</h2>
<p>When I teach Don Quixote to my students at Columbia, we can find a dark, deeply satirical, and skeptical Cervantes, but also a more nuanced and multicultural one, capable of tremendous irony. This is not – as is assumed by some – by-the-book Spanish Catholic and traditional orthodoxy. </p>
<p>What we see is a Cervantes of <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2862407?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">complex humanity</a>. Despite being captured by pirates and imprisoned in Algiers, and, from the little we know, having lived a life of many deep disappointments, we see in his writings that he was still able to sort out good and bad – among Spaniards, Turks, North Africans, English, Catholics, Protestants and <em>moriscos</em> – by their behavior and not by their labels. </p>
<p>Cervantes is most often remembered for <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/complete.html">Don Quixote</a>, giving the world the term “quixotic” and the phrase “tilting at windmills,” and the endearing and often frustrating characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92452/original/image-20150819-10841-fadlyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra (1547-1615).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juan_de_Jauregui_-_Retrato_de_Miguel_de_Cervantes.jpg">Bridgeman Art Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Less generally known, but significant even today, is the voice Cervantes gave to ideas of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cervantes-Humanist-Vision-Exemplary-Novels/dp/0691065217">freedom and tolerance</a>, especially religious freedom and the powerful love of one’s homeland. </p>
<p>This occurs most notably in Part II of Don Quixote through the character Ricote the <em>Morisco</em>, a former neighbor of Sancho Panza, who has settled in Germany after the historical expulsion of the <em>moriscos</em>. </p>
<p>Ricote longs for his homeland, Spain.</p>
<h2>Ricote, his countrymen and Cervantes</h2>
<p>Ricote, though he might face death if discovered, has sneaked back into the country, dressed as a pilgrim, in order to find buried money he had been forced to leave behind. </p>
<p>While revealing to Sancho that he himself has been less devoted to Christianity, nevertheless he has a wife and daughter who were true converts. Surprisingly, he defends King Philip III’s decree, while vividly painting the effect on himself, his family, and other <em>moriscos</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You know very well, O Sancho Panza, my neighbor and friend, how the proclamation and edict that His Majesty issues against those of my race brought terror and fear to all of us…It seems to me it was divine inspiration that moved His Majesty to put into effect so noble a resolution, not because all of us were guilty, for some were firm and true Christians, though these were so few they could not oppose those who were not, but because it is not a good idea to nurture a snake in your bosom or shelter enemies in your house. In short, it was just and reasonable for us to be chastised with the punishment of exile: lenient and mild, according to some, but for us it was the most terrible we could have received. No matter where we are we weep for Spain, for, after all, we were born here and it is our native country. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spain, like other European countries, feared the power of the Ottoman Turks, whose expansionist movements seemed unstoppable in the 16th century. </p>
<p>But Spain had a unique situation that contributed to the fear of the Ottoman Turks. </p>
<p>As a land that had been under Muslim domination for hundreds of years (from AD 711 to the mid-13th century) when Christian conquests of important cities left only the Kingdom of Granada until it, too, fell in 1492, Spain had a significant Muslim population, especially along the coasts. </p>
<p>Across the Mediterranean, the Barbary states of North Africa were under Muslim control. </p>
<p>Although forced conversions of Muslims in the 16th century intended to create a society of Christians, both <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/eve-spain">Church and Crown feared that Muslims were “false converts,”</a> remaining “crypto-Muslims,” disloyal to Spain, and worse, conspiring with Constantinople to bring about the fall of Catholic Spain. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92454/original/image-20150819-10879-ekkfrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1001&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turks at the Battle of Vienna.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Vienna.Sipahis.jpg">G Jansoone</a></span>
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<p>To be sure, Christian forces across Europe enjoyed significant victories, defeating the Ottoman Turks, for example, at the <a href="http://teachmiddleeast.lib.uchicago.edu/historical-perspectives/middle-east-seen-through-foreign-eyes/antiquity-modern/image-resource-bank/image-04.html">Battle of Vienna in 1529</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Spain felt acutely the dangers of <em>morisco</em> society. Church and Crown turned away from what they saw as failed strategies of assimilation and instead debated, confirmed and then justified the strategies of expulsion that took place in waves between 1609 and 1614. </p>
<p>While some may see Ricote’s defense of King Philip III’s decree as Cervantes toeing an orthodox line, it is obvious that a multicultural Cervantes also managed to air opposing views, under the eagle eye of the <a href="http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v06/tofino.html">Inquisitional censors</a>.</p>
<p>While nodding to the perceived political efficacy of expulsion (the <em>moriscos</em> may not be “true Christians”), Cervantes nevertheless makes no small point when he writes that the <em>morisco</em> exile “weeps for Spain” and the loss of his own country. Cervantes is unique in the degree of sympathy he shows to the <em>moriscos</em> and in his recognition of their allegiance to Spain. </p>
<p>And so, the descendants of <em>moriscos</em> ask today, how can Spain offer differential treatment to descendants of Sephardic Jews and <em>moriscos</em>? Do the Sephardic Jews feel any more keenly the loss of homeland than do the descendants of <em>moriscos</em>? </p>
<h2>Justifying differential treatment</h2>
<p>The Spanish government<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11687465/Five-centuries-after-expulsion-at-pain-of-death-Spain-grants-citizenship-to-Sephardic-Jews.html"> has congratulated itself</a> on righting a historic wrong by allowing dual citizenship to the descendants of Sephardic Jews. </p>
<p>But, at the same time, it maintains that the two cases have no basis for comparison. In one case, they argue, bigotry lay at the heart of the expulsion. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/24/spain-sephardic-jews-islam-muslim">In the other</a>, the expulsion of the <em>moriscos</em> was the result of decades of political clashes and thereby warrants no apology. As a member of Portugal’s Parliament (that has passed a similar law inviting Sephardic Jews to “return”) put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Persecution of Jews was just that, while what happened with the Arabs was part of a conflict. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But, a more obvious answer may lie in the migrant crisis facing Europe today. </p>
<p>Spain has particular problems with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/12/afrian-migrants-sea-crossing-strait-gibraltar-spain.">a growing number of refugees </a>crossing the narrow Strait of Gibraltar from North Africa, and has
already faced severe criticism by other members of the European Union for allowing its borders to be so porous, thereby opening the way for migrants to enter France and other countries. Although human rights activists have called for a more holistic response to immigration on the part of the European Union, it has still been left to the Southern European countries on the front line to bear the brunt of the migration crisis. </p>
<p>Because of the large number of descendants of <em>moriscos</em> around the world – some estimate tens of millions, most of whom are in North Africa – <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4183/muslim-right-of-return-spain">observers</a> say that virtually overnight, if Spain were to rescind the Edict of Expulsion of the <em>moriscos</em>, it could become the largest Muslim population in the European Union. </p>
<p>According to a study conducted last year by the <a href="http://www.ul.ie/news-centre/news/economic-crisis-polarises-attitudes-to-immigrants-in-ireland-and-across-eur">University of Limerick,</a> Spanish attitudes toward immigrants have significantly worsened since 2002. <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/05/12/chapter-4-views-of-roma-muslims-jews/">A 2014 Pew survey</a> revealed that more Spaniards are negative about Muslims (46% unfavorable) than are Germans (33%) or British (26%). </p>
<p>Interestingly, although Spanish scholar Americo Castro (1885-1972) recognized that Cervantes’ works demonstrated religious and ethnic tolerance, most criticism of Cervantes in Spain today is far less engaged with views of his tolerance than are scholars who are based in the US and Britain. </p>
<p>There are many things Spain itself must consider in dealing with the migration crisis, and no one underestimates the vast number of problems. </p>
<p>But maintaining a flimsy line of defense between the justification for allowing the descendants of Sephardic Jews to return to their homeland because of their much smaller number, while continuing to force the descendants of <em>moriscos</em> to “weep for Spain,” like Ricote the <em>Morisco</em>, should not continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia E. Grieve has received funding in the past from the National Endowment for the Humanities for research now published on medieval and early modern topics.</span></em></p>
Over 500 years ago, first Jews and then Muslims were expelled from Spain. This summer, Spain’s Parliament invited the former back but not the latter. Here’s what Cervantes might say to his countrymen.
Patricia E Grieve, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.