Economic Migrants vs. Refugees: Drawing the Line?
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| Written by: Ashrita Rau Program Intern, World Affairs Council of Atlanta Student, Georgia State University Published: 7/27/2017 |
More than
five million people have fled the war in Syria since it began in 2011, making
it one of the worst refugee crises in history[1].
Despite the fact that large numbers of refugees flee to surrounding
countries—including Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan—European countries remain the
most outspoken critics of accepting refugees.
On July 12th,
French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech discussing the refugee crisis
and the obligations of France in the face of so many asylum applications.
Macron stressed that “Les réfugiés
politiques et migrants économiques n’a rien à voir”, meaning that political
refugees and economic migrants have nothing to do with each other[2].
His goal was to gain support for
refugees. In order to do so, he attempted to convince the general public that
refugees, unlike economic migrants, were people who had a right to receive
French citizenship and the protection of the French government.
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| Refugees from Syria and Iraq Source: Wikimedia |
A refugee, according to the 1951
definition by the UN Convention, is someone who has fled their country of
residence because of a well-founded fear of death or imprisonment should they
remain[3].
They have to prove that they face persecution based on race, religion,
nationality, or membership of a particular social group, and they are unwilling
or unable to seek the protection of their country or to return to their
country. If asylum applicants can prove that they meet all five of these
criteria, they can be granted refugee status.
Economic migrants, unlike refugees,
are not seen as people who have been forced to flee their country. Rather,
public opinion generally tends to condemn economic migrants as people who are
too lazy to stay in their own country but rather choose to cross the borders
for ‘get rich quick’ schemes. In France, the migrants from North Africa are
seen as those who illegally made their way to Europe and should be sent back
home immediately. In the United States, migrants who manage to make their way
into Texas from Central or South America are condemned as illegal immigrants and
face deportation. The issue remains a prominent concern in the minds of United
States residents, with around 60% of people polled in a PEW research study
stating that they worry a “great deal” or a “fair amount” about illegal
immigration[4].
The distinction between economic
migrants and refugees is important politically. A refugee can receive rights
and protection that economic migrants will not be granted. However, this clear
distinction is too simplistic of an approach. It ignores the fact that economic
migrants may migrate because of safety concerns linked to poverty. For example,
a 2014 New York Times article by Sonia Nazario discusses how children who flee
South and Central American countries in order to migrate to the United States
do so in an attempt to avoid the alternative—a life of drug and gang violence[5].
It’s also unfair to assume that
violence is a necessary factor for migration. Some of the people who migrate
from poorer countries do so not because of violence, but because economic
conditions are so terrible in their home countries that they are unable to
survive. Despite that, migrants who move for economic reasons are generally
seen as unworthy of gaining citizenship in the countries that they move to.
Warsan Shire, a British-Somali poet,
wrote that “No one puts their children on a boat unless the water is safer than
the land”[6].
Perhaps when looking at economic migrants who take great risks, whether by boat
or on foot, to reach other countries, we should remember that all humans have a
right to safety and security, no matter whether or not they fit into the narrow
definition by which the UN defines refugees.
[1] http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2015/07/syria-refugee-crisis-150709120935092.html
[2] https://www.facebook.com/pg/EmmanuelMacron/posts/
[3] http://www.unhcr.org/4d944d089.pdf
[4] http://www.gallup.com/poll/206681/worry-illegal-immigration-steady.aspx
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/opinion/sunday/a-refugee-crisis-not-an-immigration-crisis.html
[6] https://www.umcnic.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Home-Poem-by-Warsan-Shire.pdf
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