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".
