By: Ananya Jain and Maya Kumar
Dangerous. Dirty. Criminals. These are labels that have been seared onto refugees. In the past, we’ve often heard harrowing stories about people escaping terrifying fates, only to be turned away, passed from one reluctant country to the next, or even turned around and shipped back to where they face certain death. These dehumanising experiences are the all too painful reality for many refugees worldwide. Countries have claimed that they did not have the systems to support influxes of people. But this has now been proven to be completely untrue, and as European nations fling their borders open, many are left wondering the justification for such a stark difference in treatment.
Apparently, politicians do have some form of reasoning. As the Prime Minister of Bulgaria says, “These are not the refugees we are used to… these people are Europeans. These people are intelligent, they are educated people.”
He says they are not used to intelligent refugees; So every other one he has come across has been stupid? This hurtful, and frankly offensive characterization of refugees has predominantly been pushed onto people of colour, who were deemed too uneducated to provide any real benefits of substance to society. Did he take the time to sit down with every person of colour who was forced to leave their home and conclude they are uneducated? Certainly not. Instead, he made a blanket statement, showing the not-so-subtle racist undertones that influence decision-making. These are people in power, and they are letting their bias greatly influence well-being and safety.
To be fair, there is something to be said about geopolitical factors making it harder to assimilate. 18% of Ukrainians speak English, compared to 6% of Afghans, for example. Most of Europe identifies as Christian, whereas Islam is the predominant religion in Syria - the country where most refugees come from.
But the point is, countries did not try.
These potential host countries view the wars and persecution these refugees face as an inconvenience to them. They fail to take into account and understand the level of fear and danger experienced daily, or they simply do not care.
Poland’s response to people fleeing due to fear of persecution and death? The Prime Minister said that “We will not be receiving migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.” Keywords: “We will not.” It’s not that they don’t have the capacity, infrastructure, or money. They just chose that some lives are not worth the effort of saving. Which then begs the question, how do politicians decide which lives are more valued than others? From what we can see, it all comes down to race.
This statement was made mere weeks before they opened welcoming arms to Ukrainian refugees. So what changed? Is it simply the geographic location, or the fact that these refugees bear some physical similarities to them? Either way, the same protection should be applied to all refugees, as they all are equally escaping harmful and dangerous persecution.
All in all, the disparity between different kinds of refugees has been clearly highlighted over the previous few months, and what we need as a society is to maintain the energy and compassion given to Ukrainian refugees for all refugees.
Crisis transcends race, language, and religion, and people in need are people before anything else. The recent war in Ukraine has reminded people that tragedy can happen to anyone, no matter what you look like, and we have the means to help others.
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