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Hosting refugees: a lesson for rich countries to learn
from the poor
Bereket Gebru
There is a general perception by most of us that human kind becomes more modern or civilized with every passing year. The turn of decades, centuries and millennia marks a major milestone in the civilization of the most advanced animal on planet earth. The technological breakthroughs in each decade have created a sense of identity about that decade with the findings becoming more advanced with in a relatively shorter time these days. The gadgets of today are only in fashion for a few months as they are quickly replaced by better performing versions.
One would imagine that the violent and rough nature of mankind would be chiseled as he becomes more advanced. Mankind is normally depicted as rational and reasonable, especially as he gets more educated. With the sophisticated technologies available these days, people should find it easy to communicate with one another and get their messages across far more easily. This increased communication should help create a better understanding among them.
However, the reality is the opposite of these expectations. Despite the expansion of education throughout the world and the advancements in technology, violent unrests in states have become more common than they used to be. Democratic or not, states all over the world use lethal force to subdue the anger of their citizens. There seems to be no trust between people and their governments.
The so-called developed countries manipulate political, economic and social differences in a weaker state to incite an internal power struggle just so they can exploit its resources. Governments that do not submit to the selfish demands of the west are doomed to be overthrown inexplicably. In other conditions, such situations go out of hand and lead to protracted bloodshed that claims the lives of people for years.
The international system that favors one side of the world and keeps the others subservient to the needs of the powerful also exacerbates the state of poverty around the world. States don’t just need to design sound national policies that promote the development of their people but make sure that their approaches are viewed positively by those with strong grips on the world. If they don’t receive the blessing of these powerful bodies, they will end up hurting their own people in the process.
The result of all such savage approaches to life during the era of human advancement is a huge number of people displaced from their homes. The world is not as conducive a living place as it used to be and people are reacting to that by migrating to places they think they can escape all the mayhem. It might just be that the civilized mankind is not civilized after all. It might be true that mankind gets more barbaric and cruel as he gets more modern.
The UNHCR states that there are 65.3 million forcibly displaced people around the world. More than 21 million of these people are refugees. 51% of these people are under the age of 18. This is the highest number of child refugees since the World War II.
Instead of making the world conducive for its entire people, the powerful states are busy handing it over to a handful of powerful individuals. Greed and profit determine the outcome of events instead of humanity and compassion. A lot more people get poorer as the world in general gets richer.
Not that a few people have started to cross the Mediterranean, the media and politicians are telling us that there is a refugee crisis. Considering 86% of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing countries, it is cynical to declare an international refugee crisis when the so-called developed world just becomes a destination recently. Sharing the already meager resources of a developing country with refugees from other countries could be a tough decision for the host countries as those resources could be used to alleviate the dire problems of their own people. Regardless of that fact, developing countries take refugees in large numbers and provide them with education, health and other services.
On the contrary, the rich countries of Europe rushed to close their borders to an influx of refugees from states they consciously destabilized in the first place. Their pretexts of democratizing states and freeing their people have repeatedly ended up dismantling countries and stinging them with the venom of sectarianism. In other cases, it is the highly skewed international system that has restricted some states to remain raw material suppliers and the developed ones as the supplier of technological products. Yet another case shows the plight of environmental refugees. As in the case of the highly skewed international system, the environmental refugees pay dearly for the sabotages and mistakes of the so-called developed countries.
The large number of deaths reported among illegal migrants is an indication of the neglect and systematic killing of those who travel to the developed world. Despite hosting just 14% of the world’s refugees with economies that stand on the other extreme of the economic spectrum, the issue of refugees has become one of the major political issues in the so-called developed world. By contrast, the developing countries that host 86% of the world’s refugees do not consider them as a burden at all. The issue of refugees is also not a political agenda in most of these countries.
It is a fact, however, that most of the refugees in the world are from developing countries. The rich countries of the world might just find it hard to allow the poor people from the South to mingle with them and get a share of the cake – no matter how little. There is also the sense of superiority that the rich feel about themselves.
But they should remember that they were always the ones that crossed seas during the first and second World Wars. After all, it was Europeans who fled religious persecution who went to America, butchered the native people there and boldly established their own state. The present day Australia has a similar story. Israel is another state established by Europeans in Arabia by stripping Palestinians of their country. South Africa, Zimbabwe and other African countries also resorted to live with those who sought to take their countries away and failed.
In light of the spirit of this year’s world refugee day celebrated in Gambella, Ethiopia, I would like to point out that the developed world needs to be more responsible in the way they handle the issue of refugees. The root causes of migration are not entirely endemic to the developed world as the policies of the rich countries of the world have a lot to do with the state of peace and stability around the world.
