"The Asylum Institute" - a tool for apartheid?

Any tips and tricks on blog posts and articles will tell you to use a catchy title, and hopefully I caught your attention.

Apartheid is and Afrikaans word literally meaning "apart-hood" and came to symbolise the political and social system of South Africa where society, rights and physical acccess was separated based on racial classification and so-called nations. It has, rightfully, become one of the most criticised forms of government organisiation in modern times, yet little attention is paid to the same when it comes to migration policies in Europe and the developed world.

In reality, we have created a global apartheid, not by race, but by passport (and by proxy, race and culture are definitely correlated variables) where certain parts of the earth are for certain people only. An interesting distinction is often made between "legitimate" refugees and "other" migrants, often referred to as economic migrants.

In Western countries, Norway for one, refugees "the real ones" are held in very high regard and their genuine need for protection is often held up as the reason why strict immigration policies are necessary. Only then can the refugees receive the support needed. Here it is often called the "protection" of the asylum institute, in order to maintain its legitimacy.

However, a little numerical analysis and brain work will quickly dispell these myths.

First of all, European countries are taking so few refugees that it's literally a drop in the ocean (no tasteless pun intended). Even with the current migrant crisis taking place both on the mediterranean, on the border between Hungary and Serbia and throughout the continent the numbers are unimpressive. Norway has just increased the annual quota for UN refugees from Syria slightly (8,000 Syrians over 3 years),something which itself is creating huge waves both nationally and locally in this outskirt of Europe. In comparisson UNHCR just "celebrated" the 4th million refugee from Syria - which is only the ones counted officially, and does not include Internally Displaced Persons. Lebanon, a small country of around 4 million people has received more than 1 million of them. In stark numbers that means that there are around 500 Syrian refugees in Lebanon for every 1 in Norway.

In addition to refugees classified (notice the word..) by the UNHCR Norway, like most European countries, processes asylum claims where some refugees are given the status as a refugee if they have been able to "somehow" get to a Norwegian border and make the claim. Combined the two numbers are still below 10,000 per year.

However, when applying for Asylum in Norway, and all European countries, the requirements are strict. Strict according to what? A document made 64 years ago called the Refugee Convention. It's very ironic, because the Refugee Convention was made in order to offer a minimum of protection to people who had no choice but to flee from their country. Today it is being applied as the only legitimate reason to move across our global apart-heid. Everyone else is a "migrant".

I have even heard people say "he is a refugee - not a migrant" to explain that someone truly has a good reason to give up everything in their life and move across borders, bariers and cultures to rebuild their lives. Migrant, said with a sort of disdain in the voice.

In fact, the asylum institute, and the plight of refugees (there are around 59 million of them according to the latest statistics by UNHCR and NRC), is being used politically to classify and reject humans genuine nature given right to choose how and where to build their own life.

If you meet refugees - support and help them. But perhaps "migrants" you meet need your understanding even more - after all, they are "just migrants".