Migrant Crisis Quotes

“There are an estimated 258 million migrants around the world, and many of us are migrating to countries that previously colonized and imperialized us. We have a human right to move, and governments should serve that right, not limit it. The unprecedented movement of people - what some call a "global migration crisis" - is, in reality, a natural progression of history. Yes, we are here because we believe in the promise of the American Dream - the search for a better life, the challenge of dreaming big. But we are also here because you were there - the cost of American imperialism and globalization, the impact of economic policies and political decisions.”
― Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

“También de este lado hay sueños.
On this side, too, there are dreams.”
― Jeanine Cummins, American Dirt

“The Arab Spring whose seeds failed to bloom anything other than a chaotic mess that requires only blood to grow has contributed immensely to the rising numbers of these migrants.”
― Aysha Taryam

“From the Author’s Note: In 2017, a migrant died every twenty-one hours along the United States-Mexico border. That number does not include the many migrants who simply disappear each year. Worldwide in 2017, as I was finishing this novel, a migrant died every ninety minutes, in the Mediterranean, in Central Americ, in the horn of Africa. Every hour and a half. So sixteen migrant deaths for each night I tuck my children into bed. When I first began my research in 2013, these estimates were difficult to find because no one was keeping track. Even now, the International Organization for Migration warns that the available statistics are “likely only a fraction of the real number of deaths” because so many migrants who vanish are never accounted for in the first place. So maybe the number is more like two hundred deaths for each load of laundry I do. There are currently around forty thousand people reported missing across Mexico, and investigators routinely find mass graves containing dozens, sometimes hundreds, of bodies.”
― Jeanine Cummins, American Dirt

“It is also difficult to maintain that post-colonial Africa hasn’t seen violence and suffering. The Africans who- oh wry irony- step into rickety boats in order to find a safe haven in the Europe of the former colonial powers.”
― Bruce Gilley

“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.
What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”
― Pope Francis

“Geography should be the ultimate deciding factor for every political dilemma for proximity to an ailing land is bound to result in one’s infection.”
― Aysha Taryam

“Sonnet 1178

Five little rich tourists sink in a sub,
Wallets open without limit on a search-n-rescue op.
A 1000 migrants die each year tryna cross the sea,
Borders tighten in sheer fear with no show of mercy.

People are only worth saving
if their savings is super healthy.
50 Shades would be a Hitchcock film
if the sicko had no money.

Empathy is a far cry, life is never the issue.
While next-door-neighbor cries of hunger,
Netflix wets more tissue.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Five little rich tourists sink in a sub,
Wallets open without limit on a search-n-rescue op.
A 1000 migrants die each year tryna cross the sea,
Borders tighten in sheer fear with no show of mercy.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Ukraine is worth aiding, but not Afghanistan,
Tourists are worth saving, but not refugees.
Loss of any life is indeed a moment of tragedy,
Then why this double-standard and hypocrisy!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat