The Changing Color of Global Refugee Problems: Are the Dams Breaking?

1- The global refugee problem

The global refugee problem remains one of the most pressing challenges, along with climate change and global aging. The fact that a refugee travels through a source country, a destination country and sometimes a transit country/ countries increases the magnitude of the problem at least three times. 

While the refugee issue is clearly a human rights issue, it can often easily become a tool of countries' domestic and foreign policies. The persistence of this problem, as well as its tendency to grow, has led developed countries to prefer a security policy perspective over a human rights perspective. 

As a reflection of this, the European Union countries are structuring countries such as Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia as Dam countries, while the United States is building Berlin Walls against its southern neighbor Mexico. 

Let's see if the dams and walls are strong.

Without going deeper into the subject, we will define refugee and take a look at the definition in the Geneva Convention and the New York Protocol, the Constitution of Refugees. 

2- What is a refugee?

A refugee is a person who has left his/her country because his/her safety and freedom have been seriously undermined. He/she seeks a new living space.  Because in the old habitat, the most basic human rights - life (life), property (property), honor (honor), etc. - are either under serious threat or there is no security of life, property and honor at all. It is also not possible for them to exercise their individual rights such as expression, belief and collective rights such as assembly and march.

3- Definition in the Geneva Convention and New York Protocol, the Constitution of Refugees 

The main international instruments defining the concept of refugee are the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 New York Protocol, which are considered the constitution of refugee law.  

Refugees were defined 71 years ago as follows: "Any person who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, having no nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. " 

4- Background of Refugee Protection Law 

The concept of refugee and asylum seeker was formed with the emergence of the state apparatus. Even the pre-state concept of the weak taking the help of another human being against the strong is reminiscent of this concept. 

However, after the emergence of the modern state, the Jews who were subjected to genocide in Germany had an impact on the provision of an international assurance other than customs. The community, not wanting to be subjected to a second genocide, abolished state borders for refugees and asylum seekers. 

Interestingly, it was mainly Muslim refugees and Christian refugees from Ukraine and Venezuela who benefited from this international protection for many years. In the last 70 years there has not been a problem of Jewish refugees. In this period, Jews have not been an object or a subject in relation to refugees, except for the state of Israel making Palestinians refugees. 

5- Are Refugees Cowardly Traitors / Peaceful Freedom Fighters?

Refugees can easily be accused of being "traitors" or, on the contrary, they can be seen as "freedom fighters" depending on their point of view. 

The term "traitor" is a superficial designation that originates either from the people in the source country who benefit from conflict and persecution, or from the relative discomfort of the residents living in the transit or destination country. 

The people of the source country, who are parties to the conflict, can easily resort to such a labeling because "they left their homeland and fled". However, he is the one who desires this outcome and is the one who creates this environment. For the subversive benefits from this clan-balanced environment of conflict and oppression. 

Citizens of the destination or transit country, who can often be an overt or covert party to the conflict, and sometimes a completely unrelated party, see refugees as responsible for their disrupted order and can easily direct their hatred towards these "traitors who have fled their homeland". 

However, the working conditions of refugees' jobs, the fact that they work longer hours and are paid less, and the severity of the work are never taken into account. The fact that refugees are a source of cheap labor in the eyes of savage capitalist capital owners is always ignored.  

If the problem is internal, like Syria, from the middle, the refugees' understanding that "I don't want to clash with my own people" is a very just and honorable justification. 

If the problem is an external invasion, sending the children and spouses of those defending the homeland to a safe country is also understandable and even honorable. 

In another way, the refugee is a great freedom fighter. He or she is honorable enough to brave an arduous journey of years, possibly with vulnerable relatives (members of vulnerable groups).  He or she has pursued a life of honor, risking serious possibilities such as drowning in cold waters and being fired upon by the security forces of the destination country. 

This does not take into account how many people have not been displaced by migrations of tribes, invasions and climate change. 

How many people can there be in this world whose ancestors were not refugees or migrants?

6- Refugee and Migrant Distinction

A basic definition is necessary to understand our topic: Refugee and migrant distinction. Refugee and migrant can be seen as synonyms used interchangeably. At first glance, it is possible to agree with this. Both the refugee and the migrant are looking for a new home and the place that will make this home is outside their own country. On the other hand, in the light of the refugee crisis, the concept of "refugee" has been misused, especially by the media, as a synonym for the concepts of asylum seeker and migrant.  Despite the apparent similarity, there is a fundamental difference: "The main difference is choice. Simply put, a migrant is someone who chooses to move and a refugee is someone who is forced out of their home" 

Refugees' situations are often so dangerous and unbearable that they are forced to cross national borders in search of safety in nearby countries, often unplanned and unprepared, without even taking their personal belongings. They do not even care about death and humiliation on the road. They are not even afraid of being caught and imprisoned. In short, refugees are people who have burned their ships. Because it is too dangerous for refugees to return home and they need another refuge. 

UNHCR defines refugees not only as "persons fleeing armed conflict" or "persecution", but also as "persons for whom refusal of asylum could have potentially fatal consequences". Migrants, on the other hand, can move for any reason.  This group chooses to migrate 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 reunification or other reasons.   Most migrants are able to return to their home country after a few years, often planning their own trip and taking or selling their belongings. 

7- Global Trend in the Refugee Field 2022 

The world is committing suicide. 

Climate change is driving migration and the lack of democracy in regimes is driving refugees. 

According to this year's UN High Commission for Refugees data and trends, "the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, violence and persecution has reached record levels globally", with 89.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide by the end of 2021.   Of these, 36.1 million are refugees and asylum seekers, while 53.2 million are internally displaced persons.   This is more than double the 42.7 million people most displaced a decade ago and since World War II. What is more, the number has been rising steadily for the last ten years. 

Asylum seekers and refugees have increased by over 11 million, undoubtedly due to Ukraine. 

8- Asylum, International Migration and Statelessness: Theory, Observation and Policy

Turkey and Refugees was the subject of an international symposium of this title organized 22 years ago and published as a book in 2011. Selahattin Ateş's (this) study evaluates the role (shortcomings) of regional and international organizations such as the EU and UNHCR and examines the ways of creating new strategies, making plans and implementing projects regarding refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. 

One of the most important observations made here is that the vast majority of refugees are Muslim or brown-black.  Indeed, refugees generally originate from Middle Eastern countries, Africa and South Asia. European refugees, on the other hand, are Muslim, as in the case of Kosovo-Bosnia and Herzegovina-Bulgaria refugees.  The countries hosting them have a similar character. Western European/North American countries do not want to be hosts in proportion to their dominance and perception of the field. 

9- Shift from Muslim Refugees to Christian Refugees

Refugees from mostly Muslim and brown countries have been steadily increasing around the world. However, the number of refugees from Christian countries has also increased significantly in the last year. 

According to mid-2022 projections, the number of refugees, which reached the 90 million mark in 2021, will exceed 101 million by the end of the year.  

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, our North-Western neighbor, on February 24, 2022, undoubtedly plays a major role in this. Again, UN data shows that the number of Ukrainian refugees exceeded 10 million within six months.  Humanity is dying more rapidly in the wider world as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or serious disturbances of public order. 

Until Ukraine, the countries with the most refugees in the world were mostly Muslim countries. Half of the refugees were from Syria and Palestine or Afghanistan. They were followed by Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar, not to mention oil-rich and poor Venezuela.    

The year 2022 has drastically changed this refugee character. Refugees are no longer dark or black faces or Muslim people. Especially with Ukraine and Venezuela, there have been significant differences in color and religious identity.  The oppressed have become more colorful. 

The issue of refugees is still not treated as a human rights issue and political perspectives come to the fore. Poland's rhetoric is still in the ears...But Polenezköy should be remembered.  Discrimination does not befit the field of human rights. 

10- Similar Change in Host Countries  

In these years, undoubtedly, most refugees come from underdeveloped, dark-skinned, Muslim countries and want to go to developed, white-skinned, Christian Western European and North American countries as destination countries. However, their host countries are similar to their countries of origin, not their destination countries. In fact, the majority of them (3/4) are neighboring countries.  

As can be seen, the countries hosting refugees were generally Muslim countries.  According to the end of 2021 data, Turkey was announced as the country hosting the most refugees in the world. There were no Western European and North American countries among the host countries, except for Germany, which entered the top five from the last row. 

11- Dams and Walled Fortresses: EU and US

By mid-2022, low- and middle-income countries will host 83% of refugees, a figure that could rise even higher as Ukrainian refugees seek asylum in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Moldova as well as Poland, with 4.2 million refugees arriving in Ukraine, 1,950,000 in Russia and 150,000 in Turkey.

The reason for this is that the EU has created dam countries such as Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt and Algeria around itself along Europe-Asia-Africa, while the US has raised its walls of shame in the south and Western countries have a security-centered and discriminatory approach to the issue.

Conclusion

With the partial invasion of Ukraine, the EU, which had positioned Turkey as a threshold country, has been forced to enter the refugee and asylum seeker arena right in the middle. According to UN data released in early August, the number of individually registered refugees in Europe exceeded 6 million 162 thousand.  The number of refugees registered under Temporary Protection or a similar national protection program in Europe is close to 3,745,000."

Moreover, with 4.2 million refugees arriving in Ukraine, Dest-i Kipchak became the center of a new migration of tribes after a thousand years.

The EU walls it has built with its own hands could collapse with the bursting of dams in countries like Ukraine, Turkey and Egypt.

Europe could be reshaped.

If the problem grows further, neither other dams nor walls can withstand the flood of refugees.

The problem must be solved at its source.

Building law and democracy and allowing countries to decide their own fate will solve this problem.

Otherwise, Noah's Flood, whose drops are human beings, knows neither dams nor walls.

But still, color discrimination is subtly woven through the oppression of cultural heritage.

This reminds us of the 1896 US Supreme Court decision (Plessy v. Ferguson), which legalized the separation of black and white, ruling that 'separate and segregated activities are acceptable provided they are equal': Segragation.

The effects of this provision, which gave birth to the doctrine of "separate but equal", created two societies that could not intertwine by the 1950s, and laws were used to enforce segregation discrimination.

In terms of both problems and solutions, the changing color of global refugee issues has certainly shifted to lighter colors.

But we need something more.

"EQUAL WITHOUT SEPARATE"

This doctrine is more humane.

More colorful.

And therefore more sustainable.

References

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Çelebi, Özlen Özçürümez, Saime ve Türkay Şirin (Ed.) (2011).  İltica, Uluslararası Göç ve Vatansızlık: Kuram, Gözlem ve Politika, Yayımlanmış seminer bildirileri,  (s 6). Ankara: UNHCR (Birleşmiş Milletler Mülteci Örgütü).

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Ateş,  Selahattin (2014).  Amerika Birleşik Devletlerinde Özgürlüklerin Sınırı Güvenlik Tehdidi Algılaması AİBÜ Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Cilt:14, Yıl:14, Sayı:1, 14:1-34