I am two months into my starting point for changing migration in Europe and I am more certain than ever of the path that I am on. My hunch, that I need to learn and experience much before I can dream to understand or change is proving to be right every day. Not a day goes by where I am not taking notes, where I am surprised, where I see people's lives interacting with a broken system, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident.
I guess one of the key realizations I am having is that I knew even less than I thought. And that this is a field where there is a really big gap between opinions and knowledge.
One of the elements that fascinates me is telling people about my job. It doesn't matter if it's family members in Germany, people I meet on the bus, people I used to know from AIESEC, my own family, my driving teach, people I stay with while I travel or taxi drivers late at night. Everyone I meet has an opinion about migration, about refugees, about the politics, about the people. Everyone is interested to talk about it, asking me my opinion, what do I do and what do I think?
I guess it makes sense, it's a hot potato kind of topic. But it's also scary. Because everyone having an interest does not mean that everyone is spending time to become genuinely informed. Everyone having an opinion does not mean that the opinion is grounded. So any conversation very quickly is just an exchange of rumours, hearsay, political debate. Very little is about real life solutions, even less is concrete.Most is about statistics or meta-subjects or money, next to nothing is about real people, psychology or values.
I think part of the "opion-makers" that irritates me the most is the media. They really do live up to the modern liberal stereotype, of meaning the politically correct, while having no real interest at dealing with the very issues at hand. In a conversation about migration dichotomised on an axis I would probably be the most liberal of all - but the liberal media is a disappointing read. In that context actors in the field, whether political, administrative, including immigration services who I may differ widely with on a matter of opinion, at leas approach the topic with a certain level of intellectual and moral honesty based on their own set of values and world view.
If it's one thing I have learnt in two months, it's that my dad was right. You have chosen a "growth industry", and everyone is involved. Migration has become hip, it has become the outrage and the stick with which to beat each other politically (amongst many). It has also become a debate stuck in "for and against" trenches that haven't moved much over a long period of time.
Today, after speaking to a desperate migrant during one of my trips I realised that I am glad my legal future is not "currently under consideration" by a government, especially not a European one including my own. The Kafkaesk legal and bureaucratic reality of migration policy is genuinely disrespectful and when I am asked about it as a citizen I am ashamed of it.
I guess migration has become hip. But migrants remain a number in a statistic (also known as DUF number in Norway).
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PS. If you are interested, check out the campaign, first started in Denmark, now in Norway #EnGangVarJegFlyktning , loosely translated to #IUsedToBeARefugee
Denmark: https://www.facebook.com/EngangVarJegFlygtning?fref=nf&pnref=story
Norway: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Engangvarjegflyktning-Norge/634140826687347?fref=nf&pnref=story
I guess one of the key realizations I am having is that I knew even less than I thought. And that this is a field where there is a really big gap between opinions and knowledge.
One of the elements that fascinates me is telling people about my job. It doesn't matter if it's family members in Germany, people I meet on the bus, people I used to know from AIESEC, my own family, my driving teach, people I stay with while I travel or taxi drivers late at night. Everyone I meet has an opinion about migration, about refugees, about the politics, about the people. Everyone is interested to talk about it, asking me my opinion, what do I do and what do I think?
I guess it makes sense, it's a hot potato kind of topic. But it's also scary. Because everyone having an interest does not mean that everyone is spending time to become genuinely informed. Everyone having an opinion does not mean that the opinion is grounded. So any conversation very quickly is just an exchange of rumours, hearsay, political debate. Very little is about real life solutions, even less is concrete.Most is about statistics or meta-subjects or money, next to nothing is about real people, psychology or values.
I think part of the "opion-makers" that irritates me the most is the media. They really do live up to the modern liberal stereotype, of meaning the politically correct, while having no real interest at dealing with the very issues at hand. In a conversation about migration dichotomised on an axis I would probably be the most liberal of all - but the liberal media is a disappointing read. In that context actors in the field, whether political, administrative, including immigration services who I may differ widely with on a matter of opinion, at leas approach the topic with a certain level of intellectual and moral honesty based on their own set of values and world view.
If it's one thing I have learnt in two months, it's that my dad was right. You have chosen a "growth industry", and everyone is involved. Migration has become hip, it has become the outrage and the stick with which to beat each other politically (amongst many). It has also become a debate stuck in "for and against" trenches that haven't moved much over a long period of time.
Today, after speaking to a desperate migrant during one of my trips I realised that I am glad my legal future is not "currently under consideration" by a government, especially not a European one including my own. The Kafkaesk legal and bureaucratic reality of migration policy is genuinely disrespectful and when I am asked about it as a citizen I am ashamed of it.
I guess migration has become hip. But migrants remain a number in a statistic (also known as DUF number in Norway).
-----
PS. If you are interested, check out the campaign, first started in Denmark, now in Norway #EnGangVarJegFlyktning , loosely translated to #IUsedToBeARefugee
Denmark: https://www.facebook.com/EngangVarJegFlygtning?fref=nf&pnref=story
Norway: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Engangvarjegflyktning-Norge/634140826687347?fref=nf&pnref=story
