Global migrants, an unprecedented phenomenon not limited to the US southern border

The increase in immigrants fleeing their countries due to poverty and rising authoritarianism is a global phenomenon, not a crisis that can be traced back to the US’s southern borders.

During a video conference: “As crises escalate, global migrants are paying the price” hosted by Ethnic media servicesvarious experts talked about how to understand the migration crisis in the context of the persecution of those who seek to find security and survival in European countries and in the West.

Susan Fratzke, Political Analyst, International Program Institute for Migration PolicyHe said that what we are seeing on the southern border of the United States is not a phenomenon unique to this country.

“The problem of people fleeing their homes for various reasons and in need of protection in other countries is also emerging in other parts of the world.”

However, he did mention that what we are seeing now in terms of the number of people moving is unprecedented in the past 100 years.

“Europe alone received almost a million asylum applications last year, mostly from people from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Venezuela and Colombia, and this is on top of the more than 4 million displaced Ukrainians who arrived in previous years.”

He mentioned that this is the result of difficult situations around the world and movements that are growing around the world. “People are not just moving to a neighboring country, they are actually seeking asylum all over the world.”

He noted that according to information from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in April, more than 1,300 people are estimated to cross Panama a day on their way to Mexico and eventually the United States.

“This winter, many of nearly two-thirds of those arrested while crossing the US-Mexico border were from South America, Colombia, Venezuela and the Caribbean.

“But there are also people from China, India, Russia and even Afghans. Movement is happening globally everywhere.”

He noted that in Spain, Colombians and Venezuelans are the largest nationalities seeking asylum in the last two years.

What caused it?

“It’s a really complex combination of factors. Political repression and persecution is one of them in places like Nicaragua and Afghanistan, or groups like the Rohingya in Bangladesh who are persecuted for their ethnicity or religious beliefs.”

He noted that there are no legal ways for people to move around the world in search of asylum and visas, unless they are highly qualified.

“Opportunities for family reunification are very limited due to very long waiting times.”

He stressed that the only way for those at risk is to leave their country using smugglers and fake travel documents, which is highly unsafe.

He confirmed that governments are very bad at managing the humanitarian crisis at their borders and their measures to help people arriving are very outdated. “It all contributed to the chaos.”

Global Migration Crisis

Andrew Rosenberg, assistant professor of political science at the University of Florida and author of “Unwanted Immigrants: Why Racism Persists in International Migration,” said rising inequality and instability in particular has led right-wing populism to use migrants as scapegoats.

“These inequalities have created real insecurity among voters and citizens in the US, the UK and elsewhere; and it opens up an opportunity for elected business politicians to take over.”

With regard to racial prejudice against immigrants, he observed that this was due to racism.

But also with the damage that the countries of the West, such as the US, the Europeans and the UK, have inflicted on the south of the globe in past centuries.

“Essentially, they have created conditions of instability, violence or poverty that are now dismissed as objective reasons against immigrants.”

He added that climate change has disproportionately affected the southern hemisphere. Therefore, most climate migrants come from unreliable places in the south of the globe.

“Given these conditions of prejudice, inequality and discontent in the northern hemisphere, it is unlikely that the West will have the political will to help.”

Refugees and climate change

Amalie Tower, founder and CEO of the organization climate refugees, He said there is absolutely no doubt that climate change is causing global displacement.

“On average, 23 million people are displaced around the world every year due to climate change and weather events, and in some years, such as 2020, the number was as high as 30.7 million.”

However, UNHCR has suggested that up to 80-90% of refugees may be from these countries, and about 70% of internally displaced persons also come from countries vulnerable to climate change.

Tower said that as we see it, the weather is driving migration these days, although we don’t have a clear understanding of how it affects it.

“Here in the United States, there is a growing number of migrants arriving at the border seeking asylum. Traditionally they were from Mexico, but hurricane damage has given way to more Salvadorans needing help, over 3.5 million in 2016, and Central America has always been vulnerable to climate change.

Lack of protection

Hossein Ayazi, Policy Analyst for the Global Justice Program in Institute of the Other and Belonging of the University of California at Berkeley said that in light of the deepening crisis, refugees from climate change or weather events are not a legally protected category, and border protection is limited.

“Little attention has been paid to the structural reasons for this displacement and the uneven experience of scarcity as a result of the climate crisis.”

He said we should ask ourselves why people in the southern hemisphere are so deeply and disproportionately vulnerable to the climate crisis that they have to move domestically or internationally.

“This has to do with centuries of colonialism, slavery, and mining in the northern hemisphere, which greatly impoverished the southern hemisphere.”

He pointed out that over the past 50 years, even after the formal end of colonialism, the northern hemisphere has maintained inequality, for example, through usurious loans to the countries of the southern hemisphere, ostensibly to help them develop while imposing rigid payment priorities on them. debt and force them to open their markets to the powerful firms of the northern hemisphere.

“All this with the help of financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, which have forced the countries of Africa, Asia, Central and South America to adhere to agricultural production that benefits the northern hemisphere.”

Author: Aracely Martinez Ortega
Source: La Opinion

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