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Can We Solve the Migration Crisis?
Every minute 24 people are forced to leave their homes and over 65 million are currently displaced world-wide. Small wonder that tackling the refugee and migration crisis has become a global political priority.
But can this crisis be resolved and if so, how? In this compelling essay, renowned human rights lawyer and scholar Jacqueline Bhabha explains why forced migration demands compassion, generosity and a more vigorous acknowledgement of our shared dependence on human mobility as a key element of global collaboration. Unless we develop humane 'win-win' strategies for tackling the inequalities and conflicts driving migration and for addressing the fears fuelling xenophobia, she argues, both innocent lives and cardinal human rights principles will be squandered in the service of futile nationalism and oppressive border control.
But can this crisis be resolved and if so, how? In this compelling essay, renowned human rights lawyer and scholar Jacqueline Bhabha explains why forced migration demands compassion, generosity and a more vigorous acknowledgement of our shared dependence on human mobility as a key element of global collaboration. Unless we develop humane 'win-win' strategies for tackling the inequalities and conflicts driving migration and for addressing the fears fuelling xenophobia, she argues, both innocent lives and cardinal human rights principles will be squandered in the service of futile nationalism and oppressive border control.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
140 pages, Hardcover
Published May 7, 2018
8 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 28, 2018
Jacqueline Bhabha is Professor of Health and Human Rights at Harvard and in this essay (which is an okay primer but quite academic in tone and didn’t add much to my overall knowledge of the subject), she examines what constitutes a “crisis”, how we should evaluate the ethical issues relating to the current crisis, the applicable legal and administrative framework and what’s driving this forced migration.
March 25, 2019
A succinct overview of migration including those who meet requirements to be labeled refugees. The author coins the term "distress" migration to refer to those crowds who accumulate at the borders.
A history of people on the move is given to provide a perspective for the current crisis to demonstrate that current circumstances are not unique in her opinion. Humans have constantly migrated over time to survive and adapt to changes in their environment. North American native, for one, were subjected to contact-induced illnesses as she describes them, brutal conquest and forced relocation. From the end of the 19th to the 20th century, approximately 46-51 million people moved from Northeast China to Manchuria and to Japan from another broader area. One million Chinese moved across the Pacific to the Americas until they were blocked by the Chinese Exclusion Act enacted in the US in 1882. Race-based migration restrictions surfaced with the beginning of the 20th century consistent with eugenicist thinking first in the US in 1882 and then the UK in 1906. Movements of the early and mid-century were the result of two world wars as is the bulk today. It is interesting to note the reaction of neighboring states when Pakistan sustained a civil war in the early 1970's. Between April and December 1971 approximately 100,000 people per day fled into India. All were registered by the Indian authorities, given entry documents and food rations as well as anti-cholera and small-pox injections. Three million were accommodated by Indian host families, another 6.8 million refugees lived in the camps. Another instructive precedent for contemporary challenges is suggested by the efforts taken by Indonesia, Phillipines in 1979 following the Viet Nam war along with US, Australia, France, and Canada to accept refugees for resettlement. Further historical events displacing even more massive populations were connected to the conflict in Afghanistan at the end of the 1970's and the disintegration of the Soviet communist empire starting in 1991 with the forced migration of the Albanians into Italy.
The author's next discussion is about the "duty" of care unaddressed by any of the other authors I have read on this subject including Patrick Kingsley. She notes that all Abrahamic religions (witnessed in the Torah, Bible and Quran) speak to the treatment of the stranger. Despite the mandate to provide for him, the countries that have provided for the migrant the best are those countries guided by secular not religious principle; namely, Sweden and Canada. The role of proximal solidarity is discussed as some suggest our responsibility is with those in closest proximity to us. Many have, therefore, delegated their responsibilities to others: government agencies, UN, World Bank, Oxfam among them. The author states we can provide nutrition, physical safety, education, health care, legal representation, comparing quotas with resettlement figures through them as long as there is sufficient monitoring and oversight to ensure performance. She cites Joseph Carens from Canada who argues that a just global policy should reduce inter-state inequality so that migration becomes less essential as a strategy to meet people's basic needs. The vulnerability of people on the move is demonstrated every day with the dinghies that capsize, rapes and robberies that occur enroute.
Short of stopping global conflicts, Jacqueline Bhabha suggests enhancing our capabilities to detect early warning signs of conflict to prevent atrocities and reduce risk of conflict in the first place. Timely diplomatic measures to halt the increases in hate speech, xenophobic legislation and in violence triggered at target groups. Another important strategy curbing weapons proliferation and the legitimacy of transnational army industry supplied by the major global players who are major arms suppliers. She states evidence suggests ( and history as well I might add) shows that outside military intervention to remove dictatorial and authoritarian regimes RARELY end conflict or produce democracies in their place. There is reason for some hope as UN has embarked on a program of action to address migration crisis to supplement that guidance provided in September 2016: Global Compacts (the New York Delegation) to have been developed in 2018 directed toward refugee policy and managing "global" migration. She suggests the redistribution of educational and employment opportunities by way of student visas and scholarships or loan schemes. A case in point is the EU Erasmus Program created in 1987 and updated in 2014. The program has a budget from member state contributions. Mobile information technology such as MOOC Massive Open Online Courses is a possibility as is the BHER Borderless Higher Education for Refugees initiative which links York University in Toronto with Somali refugee students in the Dadaab Refugee camp in Kenya. Another practice to be copied Pan African e-Network a partnership between India and African Union to support tele-education initiatives linking 7 Indian universities with five African ones.
A history of people on the move is given to provide a perspective for the current crisis to demonstrate that current circumstances are not unique in her opinion. Humans have constantly migrated over time to survive and adapt to changes in their environment. North American native, for one, were subjected to contact-induced illnesses as she describes them, brutal conquest and forced relocation. From the end of the 19th to the 20th century, approximately 46-51 million people moved from Northeast China to Manchuria and to Japan from another broader area. One million Chinese moved across the Pacific to the Americas until they were blocked by the Chinese Exclusion Act enacted in the US in 1882. Race-based migration restrictions surfaced with the beginning of the 20th century consistent with eugenicist thinking first in the US in 1882 and then the UK in 1906. Movements of the early and mid-century were the result of two world wars as is the bulk today. It is interesting to note the reaction of neighboring states when Pakistan sustained a civil war in the early 1970's. Between April and December 1971 approximately 100,000 people per day fled into India. All were registered by the Indian authorities, given entry documents and food rations as well as anti-cholera and small-pox injections. Three million were accommodated by Indian host families, another 6.8 million refugees lived in the camps. Another instructive precedent for contemporary challenges is suggested by the efforts taken by Indonesia, Phillipines in 1979 following the Viet Nam war along with US, Australia, France, and Canada to accept refugees for resettlement. Further historical events displacing even more massive populations were connected to the conflict in Afghanistan at the end of the 1970's and the disintegration of the Soviet communist empire starting in 1991 with the forced migration of the Albanians into Italy.
The author's next discussion is about the "duty" of care unaddressed by any of the other authors I have read on this subject including Patrick Kingsley. She notes that all Abrahamic religions (witnessed in the Torah, Bible and Quran) speak to the treatment of the stranger. Despite the mandate to provide for him, the countries that have provided for the migrant the best are those countries guided by secular not religious principle; namely, Sweden and Canada. The role of proximal solidarity is discussed as some suggest our responsibility is with those in closest proximity to us. Many have, therefore, delegated their responsibilities to others: government agencies, UN, World Bank, Oxfam among them. The author states we can provide nutrition, physical safety, education, health care, legal representation, comparing quotas with resettlement figures through them as long as there is sufficient monitoring and oversight to ensure performance. She cites Joseph Carens from Canada who argues that a just global policy should reduce inter-state inequality so that migration becomes less essential as a strategy to meet people's basic needs. The vulnerability of people on the move is demonstrated every day with the dinghies that capsize, rapes and robberies that occur enroute.
Short of stopping global conflicts, Jacqueline Bhabha suggests enhancing our capabilities to detect early warning signs of conflict to prevent atrocities and reduce risk of conflict in the first place. Timely diplomatic measures to halt the increases in hate speech, xenophobic legislation and in violence triggered at target groups. Another important strategy curbing weapons proliferation and the legitimacy of transnational army industry supplied by the major global players who are major arms suppliers. She states evidence suggests ( and history as well I might add) shows that outside military intervention to remove dictatorial and authoritarian regimes RARELY end conflict or produce democracies in their place. There is reason for some hope as UN has embarked on a program of action to address migration crisis to supplement that guidance provided in September 2016: Global Compacts (the New York Delegation) to have been developed in 2018 directed toward refugee policy and managing "global" migration. She suggests the redistribution of educational and employment opportunities by way of student visas and scholarships or loan schemes. A case in point is the EU Erasmus Program created in 1987 and updated in 2014. The program has a budget from member state contributions. Mobile information technology such as MOOC Massive Open Online Courses is a possibility as is the BHER Borderless Higher Education for Refugees initiative which links York University in Toronto with Somali refugee students in the Dadaab Refugee camp in Kenya. Another practice to be copied Pan African e-Network a partnership between India and African Union to support tele-education initiatives linking 7 Indian universities with five African ones.
January 12, 2019
We all share this planet together, so why shouldn’t we live on it together in harmony, rather than in conflict.
For those who don’t know much about migration, this book is a good place to start if you enjoy academic literature. Jacqueline Bhabha doesn’t go into too much detail on individual countries, but instead the overall migration issues the world faces.
She describes the definition of ‘crisis’, how belief systems or religious views influence people and their stance on migration, our duties as human kind and ways we can resolve the current situation.
For those who don’t know much about migration, this book is a good place to start if you enjoy academic literature. Jacqueline Bhabha doesn’t go into too much detail on individual countries, but instead the overall migration issues the world faces.
She describes the definition of ‘crisis’, how belief systems or religious views influence people and their stance on migration, our duties as human kind and ways we can resolve the current situation.
October 5, 2018
Important information inside, very interesting. I did not verified all the claims, many surprising. I really enjoyed the fresh expert look at the migration issue.
February 25, 2025
some parts were very gripping and moving, other parts just went on. very informative.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews