Razor-wire fences, detention centres, xenophobic rhetoric
and political disarray; nothing illustrates the tendency of governments to
aggressively pursue nationalistic interests than a humane response to refugees
fleeing conflict and war. Across the European Union is the mounting pressure of
far-right and anti-immigration groups to influence and skew the public debate
on how governments should deal with refugees and immigrants. European nations
are are increasingly adopting a cynical and questionable interpretation of
international refugee law that lacks any sense of justice or compassion.
The real emergency and urgency is taking place outside of
Europe, where there is a desperate need for more assistance from the
international community. For example, Turkey is now home to over 3 million
refugees; Jordan hosts 2.7 million refugees – a staggering 41 percent of its
population; and Lebanon has 1.5 million Syrian refugees who make up a third of
its population. Unsurprisingly, social and economic systems are under severe
strain in these and the other countries that host the majority of global
refugees – especially since they are mainly based in developing countries with
soaring unemployment rates, inadequate welfare systems and high levels of
social unrest. In stark comparison (and with the notable exception of Germany),
the 28 relatively prosperous EU member states have collectively pledged to
resettle a mere 160,000 of the one million refugees that entered Europe in
2015. Not only does this amount to less than 0.25% of their combined
population, governments have only relocated a few hundred have so far.
The 1951 Refugee Convention states that governments need
only safeguard the human rights of asylum seekers when they are inside their
territory. In violation of the spirit of this landmark human rights
legislation, the response from most European governments has been to prevent
rather than facilitate the arrival of refugees in order to minimise their legal
responsibility towards them. In order to achieve their aim, the EU has even
gone so far as making a deal to intercept migrant families crossing the Aegean
Sea and return them to Turkey against their will. Instead of providing ‘safe
and legal routes’ to refugees, a growing number of countries on the migration
path from Greece to Western Europe are militarising boarders and constructing
barbed wire barriers to stop people entering their country. Refugees (a
majority of them women and children) who are trying to pass through Europe are
at times subjected to humiliation and violence or are detained in rudimentary
camps with minimal access to the essentials they need to survive. The response of
many EU member states to those risking their lives to escape armed conflict is
tantamount to officially sanctioned racial discrimination. There can be little
doubt that the European policy to refugees has been discriminatory. It’s
crucial that the pervasive myths peddled by right-wing extremists are exposed
for what they are: bigotry, hyperbole and outright lies designed to exacerbate
fear and discord within society. By promoting solidarity between people and
nations, citizens can begin overturning prejudiced attitudes and supporting
progressive agendas geared towards safeguarding the common good of all
humanity. Ordinary citizens are leading the way and putting elected
representatives to shame by providing urgent support to refugee families in
immediate need of help. In their thousands, volunteers stationed along Europe’s
boarders have been welcoming asylum seekers by providing much needed food,
shelter and clothing, and have even provided search and rescue services for
those who have risked their lives being trafficked into Europe in rubber
dinghies. Nowhere is this spirit of compassion and generosity more apparent
than on Lesbos and other Geek islands, where residents have been collectively
nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for their humanitarian efforts. The
selfless actions of these dedicated volunteers should remind the world that
people have a responsibility and a natural inclination to serve one another in
times of need – regardless of differences in race, religion and nationality.
Instead of building militarised borders and ignoring popular calls for a just
and humanitarian response to the refugee crisis, we should heed these people of
goodwill and prioritise the needs of the world’s most vulnerable above all
other concerns. This instinctively humane response to the refugee crisis –
which is based firmly on the principle of sharing –holds the key to addressing
the whole spectrum of interconnected social, economic and environmental
challenges in the critical period ahead.
Forced migration is a global phenomenon and, compared with
other continents, Europe is not being subjected to the ‘invasion of refugees’
widely portrayed in the mainstream media. Of the world’s 60 million refugees,
nine out of ten are not seeking asylum in the EU, and the vast majority remain displaced
within their own countries. Most of those that do settle in Europe will return
to their country of origin when they are no longer at risk (as happened at the
end of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s when 70% of refugees who had fled to
Germany returned to Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Albania and
Slovenia). The spurious claim that there are insufficient resources available
to share with those seeking asylum in the EU or that asylum seekers will ‘take
our homes, our jobs and our welfare services’ is little more than a
justification for racial discrimination. Aside from the overriding moral and
legal obligation for states to provide emergency assistance to anyone fleeing
war or persecution, the economic rationale for resettling asylum seekers throughout
Europe (and globally) is sound: in countries experiencing declining birth rates
and ageing populations – as is the case across the EU as a whole – migration
levels need to be significantly increased in order to continue financing
systems of state welfare. Evidence from OECD countries demonstrates that
immigrant households contribute $2,800 more to the economy in taxes alone than
they receive in public provision. In the UK, non-European immigrants
contributed £5 billion ($7.15 billion) in taxes between 2000 and 2011. They are
also less likely to receive state benefits than the rest of the population,
more likely to start businesses, and less likely to commit serious crimes than
natives. Overall, economists at the European Commission calculate that the influx
of people from conflict zones will have a positive effect on employment rates
and long-term public finances in the most affected countries.
If migrant families contribute significantly to society and
many European countries with low birth rates actually need them in greater
numbers, why are governments and a growing sector of the population so
reluctant to honour international commitments and assist refugees in need? The
widely held belief that public resources are too scarce to share with asylum
seekers is most likely born of fear and insecurity in an age of economic
austerity, when many European citizens are struggling to make ends meet. Just as the number of people forcibly
displaced from developing countries begins to surge, economic conditions in most
European countries have made it politically unfeasible to provide incoming
refugees with shelter and basic welfare. Voluntary and compulsory austerity
measures adopted by governments after spending trillions of dollars bailing out
the banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis have resulted in deep
spending cuts to essential public services such as healthcare, education and
pensions schemes. The resulting economic crisis has led to rising unemployment,
social discontent, growing levels of inequality and public services that are
being stretched to breaking point. Instead of pointing the finger of blame at
governments for mismanaging the economy, public anger across Europe is being
wrongly directed at a far easier target: refugees from foreign lands who have
become society’s collective scapegoats at a time of grinding austerity.
Adapted from an article by Rajesh Makwana on the Common
Dreams website
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