The word “refugee” seems to have disappeared from public debate. The term “migrant” has instead become widespread. Since “migrant” has spread and is repeated and spread seemingly without reflection. It can therefore be described as a meme.
More about memes are described in chapter 9 and 10 The term “migrant” carries the definition of migrants and refugees as being the same as it is assumed that they both cross borders to live in another country. The focus has shifted from describing peoples background and taken away the reason why they left from their reason of seeking refugee from war and persecution.
Politicians and mainstream mass media are constantly describing people crossing borders into Europe as “migrants”. As the journalist Camilla Ruz writes in BBC News Magazine, the BBC has made it normal practice to describe refugees and immigrants alike as migrants.
How can the word “migrant” be used to describe refugees ? The general use of the word “migrant” describing both refugees and immigrants contains the view that the words are interchangeable, that they mean the same. The term “migrant” is seen as neutral, but the definition is false, as it is removed out of context. Refugees and immigrants are not the same. There is a difference between a Norwegian billionaire immigrant who has chosen to move to Switzerland to save tax, and refugee from Afghanistan or Iran. Migrants are free to go back to their country of origin, where they would be protected by the state. Refugees do not choose to cross borders to live in another country. They cross borders because their circumstances force them to. And, anywhere where they are given sanctuary will do. They cannot normally go back to their country of origin.
The UNHCR and the Cardiff School of Journalism produced a research report on news coverage in five different European countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK and Sweden in 2014 and 2015.
“Overall, the Swedish press was the most positive towards refugees and migrants, while coverage in the United Kingdom was the most negative, and the most polarised. The use of labels (migrant, refugee, immigrant etc.) varied markedly by country. Both Germany (91.0%) and Sweden (75.3%) overwhelmingly used the terms refugee (Flüchtling(e)/ flykting) or asylum seeker (Asylsuchende(r)/asylsokande). In contrast, migrant (migrante) was the most used term in Italy (35.8%) and especially the UK (54.2%). Refugee (profugo/ rifugiato) was used 15.7% of the time in Italy and 27.2% of the time in the UK. In Spain, the dominant term was immigrant (immigrante) which was used 67.1% of time whilst refugee (Refugiado) was used 12.5% of the time.”
The lawyer Joysheel Shrivastava argues: “Words like ‘refugee’, ‘asylum seeker’, ‘migrant’ are often used interchangeably in everyday conversation or in the media, masking important differences in legal status and protection. While the law has prescribed a very clear difference between asylum seekers and economic migrants, States have conflated the meaning of the two, and have used it to side-step their obligations under the 1951 Convention Relating to The Status of Refugees (the 1951 Refugee Convention).”
The UN Declaration of Human Rights article 14 says that “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”. The UNHCR separates clearly between refugees and migrants, since refugees have a right to seek asylum and protection by law in all UN membership nations by law. It does not mean that they are granted asylum, which is extremely difficult.
Refugees are defined and protected in international law. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, as well as other legal texts such as the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, remain the cornerstone of modern refugee protection.
Migrants choose to move not because of a direct threat of persecution or death but mainly to improve their lives by finding work or, in some cases, for education, family reunion, or other reasons. Unlike refugees who can not safely return home, migrants face no such impediment to return. If they choose to return home, they will continue to receive the protection of their government.
In UNHCR-speak, the terms “refugees and migrants” are used when referring to movements of people by sea or in other circumstances where we think both groups may be present – boat movements in Southeast Asia are another example.
“Refugees”, more particularly, is used to refer to people fleeing war or persecution across an international border. And “migrants” is employed when we mean people moving for reasons not included in the legal definition of a refugee.
Fortress Europe
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
From the poem “‘Home’ by Warsan Shire.
E.U. migrant pact: a gift for the extreme right ?
The respect for human rights have been a firewall against the extreme right. Policies that go to far in removing human rights risk weakening these universal principles.
The new EU migration pact seems not to have been able to block the rise of right-wing populism. Right-wing parties continue to gain traction in several countries, including France and Austria, where leaders such as Marine Le Pen and Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) are increasingly popular and influential. Right-wing parties appear to have surpassed the obstacles by adopting more extreme demands. Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s National Rally (RN), has put forward a proposal to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in France to non-French parents and bar dual nationals from some state jobs.
270 180 refugees entered the European Union by land and sea in 2023, as stated by the UN High Commission for refugees. This is an increase, but should be manageable if the 27 European countries with 448 million people shared the refugees. In comparison over 80 the more than 26.3 million refugees in the world are hosted in poor countries, see section 10. Lebanon house over 1,5 million refugees which is 30 % of the population. The EU parliament on Wednesday, April 10 adopted a reform of Europe’s asylum policies. The new pact does not offer a mechanism for distributing refugees from southern to the northern European countries. Instead of taking refugees, the membership countries can pay themselves out for a reasonable sum.
In a joint statement 10 april 2024, 22 charity groups including Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee says that “The European Parliament has today voted through a Pact that leaves troubling cracks deep within Europe’s approach to asylum and migration, and fails to offer sustainable solutions for people seeking safety at Europe’s borders. It is unlikely to decrease pressure on states of first entry, prevent human rights violations at borders, adequately uphold the right to asylum, or create a common European asylum system with clear rules and regulations.”
The coast guards of the national states around the Mediterranean do not provide security at sea. 31 184 refugees and immigrants are dead or missing after trying to cross the central Mediterranean since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration
A small fleet of Non-Governmental charity-funded rescue ships has stepped in where the national states have failed:
Sea Watch1-5, Seabird and Aurora, the Banksy boat MV Louise Michel, Aita Mari, Alain Kurdi, Alex, the Médicins Sans Frontíeres/SOS Méditarranée Aquarius, Ocean Viking, Bourbon Argos, Dignity 1 and Geo Barents, Astral, Golfo Azzuno, VOS Hestia, Iuventa, Josefa, Life, Life Support, Lifeline, Mare´Go, Mare Jonio, Mare Liberium, Minden, Mission Eleonore, Mo Chara, Nadir, Open Arms, Phoenix, VOS Prudence, ResQ PEOPLE, Rise Above, See-Eye, Sea-Eye 4, Sebastian K and Seefuchs.
The response to this collective European avoidance of responsibility for the human rights situation have been stricter control of the borders. The European Union paid Libyan coast guard, and the greek coast guard has performed illegal push backs of refugees with 59 million Euro. Sea rescue from the states bordering the Mediterranean has been slow and inefficient.
The Libyan coast guard has even fired against the rescue ship Ocean Viking. Ocean Viking was on its way to help 80 people in a rubber boat when they were threatened by gunfire by the Libyan coast guard, as reported by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.
Euronews reported that 14. June 2023 that the European Union would “provide €100 million to Tunisia this year for border management, search and rescue, anti-smuggling and return and that it stands ready to provide a further €1 billion of macro-financial assistance”. This means trying to stop the refugees crossing the mediterranean. The EU has also made a similar agrement with Egypt.
Establishing detention camps in Albania
The Guardian reports that the Italian far-right Meloni government has signed an agreement with Albania where they want to build centres for refugees who have been rescued by sea.
One can easily imagine refugee camps in Albania expanding to an unmanageable size, where people are forced to stay for extended periods. Based on the experiences of other European countries, many asylum seekers may be stuck in a prolonged state of limbo after their applications are denied. Additionally, it raises the question: who will be granted the authority to oversee and inspect conditions within these camps?
From Norway we know that the asylum regulations are set very strict in order to restrict immigration. 1982 people got political asylum in Norway in 2023, as stated by the Directorate of Immigration. This strict approach will probably also apply for Italy as well as for other EU countries. Therefore many refugees are not granted political asylum, but also cannot be returned to their country of origin because their lives would be in danger…or because their country of origin refuses to accept them.
Most of the refugees live in reception centres for one-and-a half years in Norway, waiting for an answer to their asylum application. The Norwegian Association for Asylum Seekers states there are 210 refugees who have been in limbo for more than ten years, 30 of these have been in this situation more than 16 years. They do not have rights to work, study or to marry.