OMNI
UNITED STATES, REFUGEES, ASYLUM SEEKERS NEWSLETTER #2,
November 24, 2015.
COMPILED BY DICK BENNETT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE,
JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY
(#1, August 2, 2014)
For research purposes, specific
subjects can be located in the following alphabetized index, and searched on
the blog using the search box. The search box is located in the upper
left corner of the webpage.
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
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See:Arab Spring, Displaced
Persons, Indigenous People Genocide,
Jewish Holocaust WWII, Korea, Syria, Tibet, Vietnam, Warming, Wars, etc!
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(479) 442-4600
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2582 Jimmie Ave.
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REFUGEE STATS AND
FACTS
Minimum number of people displaced since 2004 by World Bank
projects: 3,350,449.
Portion of Syrians seeking asylum,
since 2011 who have been hosted by Turkey: 2/5.
By the US: 1/7,700.
From “Harper’s Index,” Harper’s
Magazine (July 2015).
Number of migrants who have entered Greece so far this year:
453,912.
Number who have applied for asylum
there: 8,519
Percentage of Syrian asylum
seekers in Germany who have been granted refugee status: 99.5.
Percentage of Afghan asylum seekers
who have: 37.
Percentage of recently arrived adult immigrants to the US
who have a bachelor’s degree: 41.
Percentage of native-born US adults who do: 30.
From “Harper’s Index,” Harper’s
Magazine (Dec. 2015, 9).
CONTENTS:
UNITED STATES, REFUGEES, ASYLUM SEEKERS NEWSLETTER #2
PETITIONS,
APPEALS IN SUPPORT OF ASYLUM
Win
Without War, Contact Your Senators
Bernie
Sanders
Bill
of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)
US
Writers
UNHCR
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
UN
WIRE Reports on Climate and Refugees
UNITED STATES, REFUGEES,
ASYLUM SEEKERS FLEEING WAR
Choosing to Act
from Love Instead of Fear
Political
Struggle: Win Without War, S.2145, the
Middle East Refugee
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act
Schooling
of Somalia Muslim Women in the US
SYRIA CIVIL WAR
Intervention
in Syria Should Be More or Less?
Friends
Committee for National Legislation (FCNL): “Our love
for refugees as fellow humans, whose lives matter, needs to trump
our fear of the violence they're running from.”
ARKANSAS
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/ADG)
(See
below for contacting Arkansas’ Senators and Representatives)
WWII
Concentration Camps for Japanese-AMERICANS No Parallel
Governor
Hutchinson: No Room at the Arkansas Inn
and No Stable
Either—Only Greed, Jingoism, Xenophobia, National Security (i.e. Fear
Down to His Socks), and Opportunism
Either—Only Greed, Jingoism, Xenophobia, National Security (i.e. Fear
Down to His Socks), and Opportunism
Arkies Reply
The Christian Compassion Tradition
The US Political Tradition of a Nation
of Immigrants
And More
FLEEING
INDIVIDUAL ABUSE
Ann Medlock,
Giraffe: Paula Lucas Fleeing UAE
CLIMATE CHANGE
REFUGEES
Refugees
International, Population Displacement and Climate Change
Climate
Displacement 2015, Google Search, Nov.
21, 2015
HISTORICAL AND GLOBAL
CONTEXTS
McFadden, Rescue of Jewish Children from Nazi
Germany
The Demise of the Homogeneous State in ME and West
as Cause.
Tomgram, “the
Great Unraveling”; John Feffer, “Splinterlands,” Looking Back
from 2050
from 2050
BUILDING THE
FUTURE OF IMMIGRANTS
Equitable Education for Displaced
Populations by Elinor
L. Brown, Anna
Krasteva,
Krasteva,
Contact your
Senators, Representatives, and President Obama
PETITIONS, APPEALS
Give Me
Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free
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2:54 PM (13 minutes ago)
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Can you add your
name to Bernie's Syrian refugee petition today?
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11:46 AM (5 hours ago)
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The response to Bernie’s email in the last 48 hours has been
incredible.
Our movement is proving that now is the time to stand with
refugees fleeing violence — not give in to the racism and bigotry being spouted
by Republican candidates. Can you add your name to Bernie’s petition today?
See Bernie's original email to
you below:
Dick -
My father Eli immigrated to America from Poland in 1921 after
World War I at the age of 17. He was not a refugee fleeing war, although much
of his family later became victims of the Holocaust. He came to America looking
to make a better life. He never made a lot of money, but it didn’t matter
because he was able to start a family and send his two sons to college. That
meant the world to him and he loved this country.
While my father came here as an immigrant, many have also come
as refugees fleeing war, oppression and violence. That's why I opposed the call
of some to turn away unaccompanied children who showed up on our borders from
Latin America. We must not allow the horrific violence we have seen in France
and elsewhere to turn us from our historic role as a haven for the oppressed.
In terms of the Syrian refugee situation we are now facing, now
is not the time for us to succumb to racism and bigotry. In
this moment, it is particularly important that we not allow ourselves to be
divided by the anti-immigrant hysteria that Republican presidential candidates
are ginning up.
When hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything and
have nothing left but the shirts on their backs, we should not turn our
backs on these refugees escaping violence in the Middle East. Of
course we have to investigate the backgrounds of people coming into the country
— and we will — but to suggest that we would even turn away orphans is
incredible.
The rhetoric and fear mongering about these refugees from some
Republicans running for President is abhorrent and has no place in our
political discourse.
Donald Trump has not just called for keeping out Syrian
refugees, he also said he thinks it's a good idea to create a national database
of all Muslims in America. Meanwhile, Ben Carson said some Syrian refugees are
like "rabid dogs" and referred to the rest of Syrian refugees as just
"dogs." This disgusting rhetoric cannot be tolerated.
Other Republicans have suggested rounding up existing refugees
and deporting them. And yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted
on a plan that would make it near impossible for the United States to continue
our Syrian refugee program.
This is not what America stands for.
Syrians and other refugees from the Middle East are escaping
unspeakable horrors. To get to our country, refugees already go through a
vigorous vetting program by the FBI, National Counterterrorism Center, Homeland
Security and the State Department. The process takes almost two years and
refugees from Syria face additional scrutiny.
We should continue our program to provide Syrians fleeing
violence with the opportunity for a new life. I hope you’ll join me to stand
together to admit Syrian refugees. Sign my petition here:
Thank you for standing with me and making your voice heard on
this important issue.
In solidarity, Bernie
SandersSIGN OUR PETITION
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12:03 PM (3 hours ago)
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US AUTHORS: allow the refugees in.
Good morning! Here's your daily
digest of money-in-politics news and the headlines of the day, compiled by BillMoyers.com’s
John Light.
Home
of the brave -->
An open letter signed by a dozen of America's leading authors reminds Congress
that its fear of Syrian refugees is unfounded and anti-American: "Refugees
are not the enemy. Refugees are our spouses, our parents, our grandparents.
Some among us are refugees themselves; others have experienced the violence of
war. But we are all writers. As such it is our duty to bear witness." The
writers (Reza Aslan, Geraldine Brooks, Teju Cole, Aleksandar Hemon, Marlon
James, Phil Klay, Laila Lalami, Yiyun Li, Tom Lutz, Maaza Mengiste, Gary
Shteyngart and Jane Smiley) call on Congress to rethink its actions and allow
the refugees in.
AN
INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN CRISIS NEEDS AN INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE: SUPPORT UNITED NATIONS
REFUGEE RELIEF
UNHCR
2015, Google Search Nov. 23, 2015
Adwww.unrefugees.org/donate
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United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR - The UN Refugee
Agency. Share: Email · Facebook · Reddit · StumbleUpon · Digg · Delicious.
www.unhcr.org/.../inde..
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR Global Appeal 2015 Update.
www.unhcr.org/.../inde...
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR Global Appeal 2014-2015.
www.unhcr.org/publ.html
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
5 June 2015 · Guidelines on
International Protection No. 10: Claims to Refugee Status related to Military
Service within the context of Article 1A (2) of the 1951 ...
www.unhcr.org/5461e6...
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR - The UN Refugee
Agency. Français Share: Email · Facebook · Reddit · StumbleUpon · Digg ·
Delicious.
www.unhcr.org/5461e5...
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR - The UN Refugee
Agency. Français Share: Email · Facebook · Reddit · StumbleUpon · Digg ·
Delicious.
www.unhcr.org/5461e6...
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR - The UN Refugee
Agency. Français Share: Email · Facebook · Reddit · StumbleUpon · Digg ·
Delicious.
www.unhcr.org/5461e5...
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNHCR - The UN Refugee
Agency. Français Share: Email · Facebook · Reddit · StumbleUpon · Digg ·
Delicious.
www.unhcr.org/.../49c3...
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Annual budget reached US$7
billion for 2015. ... UNHCR Global Appeal 2015 Update - Populations of concern to UNHCR · UNHCR Global Appeal 2014-2015 ...
In
the news
Deutsche
Welle - 3 hours ago
Jordan Times - 2 days ago
UN WIRE, UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION
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UNITED STATES AND WELCOMING REFUGEES
Syrian Refugees
Hysteria
Rattles US Brains
Syrian Refugees
and Japanese-American Internees?
Virginia Mayor
David Bowers cited the mass detention of Japanese-Americans during WWII to
bolster his opposition to allowing Syrian refugees to resettle in the US. The parallel he thought? The US interned dangerous “foreign nationals”
guilty or suspected of espionage and sabotage.
But Star Trek star George
Takei, who was interned at age 5 at the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas in
1942, reminded Bowers that there was no evidence of espionage or sabotage. Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette (Nov. 20, 2015).
And none for Syrians fleeing toward the US, and there is and will be thorough
screening.
The Syrian Refugee
Crisis and the ‘Do Something’ Lie By Adam Johnson. FAIR.
http://fair.org/home/the-syrian-refugee-crisis-and-the-do-something-lie/
Photo of Syrian refugees coming ashore on the Greek island of
Lesbos that accompanied the Guardian‘s
editorial (9/3/15) condemning “the refusal to intervene against Bashar al-Assad.”
(photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/Getty)
It didn’t take long for the
universal and entirely justified outrage over a picture of a dead
three-year-old to be funneled by the “do something” pundits to justify regime
change in Syria. The “do something” crowd wants us to “do something” about the
refugee crisis and “solve” the “bigger problem,” which, of course, involves
regime change. To create the moral urgency and to tether the refugee crisis to
their long-standing warmongering, these actors have to insist the US has “done
nothing” about Syria. Here’s the Guardian editorial from Thursday:
The optimism of the Arab spring
is spent. Colonel Gaddafi was a tyrant, yet Libya has unravelled violently in
the aftermath of his removal. The refusal to intervene against Bashar al-Assad gave the Syrian president permission
to continue murdering his people.
Here’s London Mayor Boris Johnson
in the Telegraph:
I perfectly accept that
intervention has not often worked. It has been a disaster in Iraq; it has been
a disaster in Libya. But can you honestly say that non-intervention in Syria has
been a success? If we keep doing nothing about the nightmare in Syria, then frankly we must brace ourselves
for an eternity of refugees, more people suffocating in airless cattle trucks
at European motorway service stations, more people trying to climb the barbed
wire that we are building around the European Union.
And here’s an op-ed by
Michael Gerson in the Washington Post from
the same day:
At many points during the past
four years, even relatively small actions might have reduced the pace of
civilian casualties in Syria. How hard would it have been to destroy the
helicopters dropping barrel bombs on neighborhoods? A number of
options well short of major intervention might have reduced the regime’s
destructive power and/or strengthened the capabilities of more responsible
forces. All were untaken.
But this is all a fantasy. The US
has been “intervening” in the Syrian civil war, in measurable and significant
ways, since at least 2012—most notably by arming, funding and training
anti-Assad forces. According to
a report in the Washington Post from
June:
At $1 billion, Syria-related
operations account for about $1 of every $15 in the CIA’s overall budget,
judging by spending levels revealed in documents the Washington
Post obtained from
former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
US officials said the CIA has
trained and equipped nearly 10,000 fighters sent into Syria over the past
several years — meaning that the agency is spending roughly $100,000 per year
for every anti-Assad rebel who has gone through the program.
In addition to this, the Obama
administration has engaged in crippling sanctions against
the Assad government, provided air support for
those looking to depose him, incidentally funneled arms
to ISIS, and not incidentally aligned the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army with Al Qaeda.
Regardless of one’s position on Syria—or whether they think the US is somehow
secretly in alliance with Assad, as some advance—one thing cannot be said: that
the US has “done nothing in Syria.” This is historically false.
Most of those advocating for the
removal of Assad probably know this, but can’t say “the US should do more,”
or “they haven’t done enough,” because this would raise the
uncomfortable question of what they have done already. And the answer to that,
as is with most US meddling in other countries, is a lot of covert programs US
officials—and thus their court press—can’t openly acknowledge. So those in the
establishment media are left to do a strange dance: at once ignoring all the US
has already done while insisting the US should join a fight it’s been a party
to for over three years.
Another idea being advanced, for
instance in the Guardian op-ed
above, is the creation of a no-fly zone to help stem the tide of refugees:
To begin restoring that hope will
inevitably mean international intervention of some kind. The establishment of
credible safe havens and the implementation of a no-fly zone must be on the
table for serious consideration.
Two things before discussing this
further:
A) A no-fly zone would only be
applied to Assad because anti-Assad forces don’t have an air force.
B) While it may sound like
a simple humanitarian stop gap—and that’s no doubt how it’s being sold—literally every no-fly zone in
history has eventually led to regime change. Which is fair enough,
but those pushing for one should at least be honest about what this means: the
active removal of Assad by foreign forces. Indeed, if one recalls the NATO
intervention in Libya was originally sold as a no-fly
zone to prevent
a potential genocide, but within a matter of weeks, NATO leaders had pivoted to full-on regime change.
But here again, there’s some
serious fudging going on by the Guardian. While there’s no doubt many of the
refugees are escaping Assad’s bombing of cities, the boy in question, Aylan
Kurdi, wasn’t: He was escaping ISIS and the US bombing of his hometown of Kobani, far from anything the Assad
government is doing. A no-fly zone would not have saved his hometown. An
absence of fueling jihadists by the United States and thesubsequent bombing of
said jihadists by the United States? Perhaps.
Once again, the disease becomes
the cure, because a holistic diagnosis is not being advanced by Western
media—only an evil dictator vs. freedom fighter cartoon. And why wouldn’t it?
These nuances complicate the messy narrative of “If we get rid of Assad we can
solve the crisis,” which has been US and UK orthodoxy since 2011. But the Guardian still has all their work ahead of
them: If the West removes Assad, then what? Will the tens of thousands of
radical, medieval wahabbists that have flooded in simply go away? Will the US
bombing of ISIS simply stop?
The US funded, armed and fueled the very crisis its partisan
media are now calling for it to swoop in and save. The
moral ADD required by those pushing further US
involvement in the Syrian civil war in the face of this fact is severe. That
some in the media, eager to settle old scores, would so blatantly ignore
history to indulge this fantasy is as pernicious as it is predictable.
UNITED STATES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
FLEEING WAR
Portion of Syrians seeking asylum
since 2011 who have been hosted by Turkey: 2/5.
By the US: 1/7,700.
From “Harper’s Index,” Harper’s
Magazine (July 2015).
MORE AID
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https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s2145/text
GovTrack Oct 6, 2015 - ... Middle East Refugee Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act, ... as used in this Act shall be as defined in section 7034(t)(1) of division J ... S. 2145
www.gpo.gov/.../BILLS.../B...
United
States Government Publishing Office
Oct 6, 2015 - A BILL. To make supplemental
appropriations for fiscal year 2016. Be it enacted by the ... refugee crisis resulting
from conflict in the Middle East,. 12. VerDate ... et and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, except
that. 5 such amount ... 7034(t)(1) of division J of the Consolidated and Further. 9.
Continuing ...
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2145/text
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/.../moveon-takes-the-lead-in-nonprofits-ad...
Oct 30, 2015 - Why isn't more funding coming
from U.S. charitable donors and ... to pass the bipartisan Middle East Refugee
Supplemental Appropriations Act, which ...Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance, $50m, $50m, $250m.
https://www.facebook.com/ShaykhHamzaYusuf/.../10153615356681544
At last, a bipartisan push
has begun in Congress to help Syrian refugees in ... 2145, theMiddle East Refugee
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act." ... If we don't speak up, we leave the
debate to those calling for America to turn our ...
dyn.realclearpolitics.com
› ... › 114th Congress › s2145
BUILDING
NATIONS OF REFUGEES
Educated for Change?
Muslim Refugee Women in
the West
Patricia Buck, Bates College
Rachel Silver,
Matawi, Inc.
A volume in the
series Education Policy in Practice: Critical Cultural Studies
2012.
. . . .Following
an initial introduction to the ethno-historical formation and dissolution of
the Somali postcolonial state resulting in a prolonged exodus of Somali
citizens, the text is divided into two parts. Part One features an examination
of young women’s approaches to schooling in the Dadaab refugee camps of
northeastern Kenya ; Part Two looks at
schooling among Somali women resettled in a northern region of the United
States. Each part includes
a description of the unique, if interconnected, local factors and policies that
give rise to particular forms and ends of schooling as designed for refugee
women. Several chapters depict women’s strategic use of schooling to respond to
structural forces, build intercultural social networks, and negotiate new ways
of being Somali women.
Educated for
Change? concludes with an analysis of the implications of Somali refugee
women’s schooling experiences for working definitions of global
social justice
that undergird feminist political scholarship and gender-sensitive,
humanitarian aid policy and practice
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
A QUAKER PROGRAM FOR THE FUTURE
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Nov. 21, 2015 4:51 PM (15 hours ago)
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FLEEING INDIVIDUAL ABUSE
GETTING
FAMILIES TO SAFETY:
THE WIFE/MOTHER FLEEING HUSBAND/FATHER
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5:45 PM (1 hour ago)
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ARKANSAS
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/ADG)
Governor
Hutchinson Joins Other Governors in Rejecting Syrian Refugees::
No Room at the Arkansas Inn and No Stable
Either— National Security and Public Fear Cover Opportunism, Greed, Jingoism, and Xenophobia.
Either— National Security and Public Fear Cover Opportunism, Greed, Jingoism, and Xenophobia.
Arkies
Reply to the Governor (all of the immediately
following in ADG 11-20-15, p. 7B)
The
Christian tradition offers a powerful rebuke to the Governor.
Byard Miller,
“Exceptions Aren’t Rule,” invites Christian denominations to speak out against
the “the state,” citing the New Testament’s concern for the poor and needy.
A letter by Jim
Wohlleb, Little Rock, “Reflecting Traditions,” praises “the Arkansas Catholic
Diocese, United Methodist bishop, and many religious people for their
forthright welcomes to desperate immigrants who seek shelter! They are reflecting ancient tenets of
Abrahamic (and other) traditions—compassion and care for strangers and the
needy.”
In the guest
column “Passing Judgment: Parallels in the Christmas Story,” Khalid Ahmadzai recounts the story of the
birth of Jesus born in a stable after his parents Joseph and pregnant Mary were
rejected by the innkeeper. “Now when you
think of Mary and Joseph knocking on the door of the inn, think of the Syrian
refugees. When you think of the
innkeeper, think of those who refuse refugees in their states. And when you think of the possible bad guy in
the middle of these refugees, well, think of Judas Iscariot. . . .” Ahmadzai is a degree candidate at the Clinton
School of Public Service.
Succinctly this
letter from Jean Gordon, “It Would Just Be Silly”: “I guess Christian churches
in Arkansas will not be celebrating Christmas this year with pageants about a
Middle Eastern couple desperately seeking shelter.” Gordon is the founder of Arkansas’ WAND
chapter.
And
in the US Political Tradition as a Nation of Immigrants,
Arkies
Remember the Statue of Liberty,
“Mother of Exiles,” and the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus inscribed in its base: “’Send
these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden
door!’”
The ADG 11-20-15, p. 6B, included the text
of the Emma Lazarus’ Statue of Liberty poem “The New Colossus” illustrated by a
drawing of the Statue and accompanied by the question: “Who Knew that the
Statue of Liberty Had a Name?” and the reply: “Mother of Exiles.”
Dennis Schellhase of Little Rock in “For We Are Americans” urges readers after
prudent diligence to embrace Lazarus and “not to fear,” but to welcome the
tired, poor, “’huddled masses yearning to be free.’” “…our greatest weapons in this war for hearts
and minds are compassion, decency, humanity and liberty—not fear and
isolationism.”
Janet
Tarkington of Hot Springs in “Punishing the Many” also quotes from Lazarus’
poem and exhorts Gov. Hutchinson to reject “the guise and fear of terrorism,
for what a few have done,” and to “do the right thing toward these brave
individuals who have been forced to risk their lives to leave their country.”
Arkies Remember
Past Racism, Call for Screening, and Ask for Limits
Pat Oakes,
Little Rock, in “Built by Immigrants” places the Governor’s shut door to
Syrians fleeing for their lives in the contexts of our earlier injustices
against Native Americans and “the racism
that we see every day.” “Wake up people,
this country was built by immigrants.”
L. H. Fordyce,
“Must Have Boundaries,” supports helping the Syrian refugees after “thinking
things through” and “they are carefully screened.”
A regular
columnist, Dana Kelley, “An Immigration Primer,” defends US “long history of
saying yes to relatively few immigrants and no to many more others, and it’s
nothing to be ashamed of,” because “immigration policy ought to be about what’s
best for the country, not what’s best for immigrants.”
Finally, a
cartoon by Plante depicts a character with large, curled mustache wearing a
black hat saying: “We can’t be letting those Syrian refugees into this
country….It’s too easy fer them to git guns.”
IS THE ADG SO WELCOMING
OF REFUGEES in other numbers? Other editorial
pages also give access to those who would bar the Syrians seeking asylum. November 24, 2015 Letters present two writers
who support Governor Hutchinson’s fear of terrorists and three writers who
reject fear and support refugees: Arthur Luck supporting Pres. Obama, Sally
Mays citing Jesus, and Bill Farrell the US Constitution and well-established
screening procedures. Farrell reasons: “To
exclude people because they might cause
harm [judges] whole blocs of people by the actions of a few.”
GLOBAL CONTEXTS
CHILDREN
REFUGEES FROM NAZI OCCUPATION
[Not
rescued by the US]
Nicholas Winton, Rescuer of 669 Children From Holocaust, Dies at 106
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN JULY 1, 2015
A family picture of Nicholas Winton with one of the hundreds of
Jewish children whose lives he saved during World War II. CreditPress Association, via
Associated Press
·
Email
Nicholas Winton, a Briton who said nothing for a half-century
about his role in organizing the escape of 669 mostly Jewish children from
Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II, a righteous deed like those of Oskar
Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg, died on Wednesday in Maidenhead, England. He
was 106.
The Rotary Club of
Maidenhead, of which Mr. Winton was a former president, announced
his death on its website. He lived in Maidenhead, west of London.
It was only after Mr. Winton’s wife found a scrapbook in the
attic of their home in 1988 — a dusty record of names, pictures and documents
detailing a story of redemption from the Holocaust — that he spoke of his
all-but-forgotten work in the deliverance of children who, like the parents who
gave them up to save their lives, were destined for Nazi concentration camps
and extermination.
The Demise of the Homogeneous State
[and the refugee crisis caused by Western interventions].
The
Decline of the Western Ethnic State – An Analysis (24 September 2015) by
Lawrence Davidson [I
read this in The Humanist (Nov. Dec.
2015). –Dick]
Part I – The “Ideal State”
If you
were transported back to Europe in 1900 and asked educated citizens to describe
the ideal political arrangement, what they would outline to you is a
homogeneous nation-state: France for the French, Germany for the Germans, Italy
for the Italians, and the like. They would note exceptions, but describe them
as unstable. For instance, at this time the Austro-Hungarian Empire was,
ethnically, a very diverse place, but it was politically restless. Come World
War I, ethnic desires for self-rule and independence would help tear this
European-centered multinational empire apart. In truth, even those states that
fancied themselves ethnically unified were made up of many regional outlooks
and dialects, but the friction these caused was usually minor enough to allow
the ideal of homogeneity to prevail. The ethnically unified nation-state was
almost everyone’s “ideal state.”
This
standard of homogeneity started to break down after World War II. After this
war the foreign empires run by many of Europe’s homogeneous states were in
retreat and in their wake came a slew of new nations in Africa, Asia and the
Middle East. Simultaneously, the impact of the end of empire on the European
nations was to have their own homogeneous status eroded. For instance, when
Great Britain set up the Commonwealth as a substitute for empire she allowed
freer immigration into England for Commonwealth citizens. The result was an
influx of people of color from former British colonies in Africa,
India-Pakistan and the Caribbean. A similar thing happened as the French empire
crumbled. With its demise many North Africans, as well as Vietnamese Catholics,
went to France. Later, Turks would go to Germany, a preference that reflected
the close relations between Berlin and the defunct Ottoman Empire. Then came
the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1993, which facilitated the flow of
labor across European borders. Now citizens of one EU state could go and work
in any other member state.
In other
words, the twenty or thirty years following World War II marked the beginning
of the end of the Western homogeneous state.
Part II – The Refugee Crisis
Now we may
be witnessing the final stage of that demise. The present refugee crisis
resulting from wars raging in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya, among
other places in the Middle East, has set in movement millions of displaced
people. Many of these refugees are heading for Europe.
While
initially most of the European Union leaders showed some willingness to take in
substantial numbers of refugees, strong resistance from Hungary, Romania,
Slovakia and the Czech Republic caused a pause in the effort. This was a
predictable moment. All established populations, even relatively diverse ones,
fear that their cultural norms and economic advantages will be threatened by
large waves of new immigrants. At the extreme, one finds ideologically and
religiously defined nations such as the Arab Gulf states and the allegedly
Westernized Israel (itself a product of an overwhelming refugee invasion of
Palestine) refusing to take in any of the present refugees. Even in a country
such as the United States, which is historically built upon the inflow
of diverse populations, it is politically difficult to open borders to new
refugees in need. Initially, announcing a willingness to allow an
embarrassingly small number of 10,000 refugees to enter, Washington has
increased that to 100,000 between now and 2017.
Getting
back to the European scene, the pressures now building on the borders
eventually resulted in a EU decision, allegedly binding on all its 28 member
states, to speed up the intake screening process for refugees and distribute
the accepted numbers across the EU countries. How many will ultimately be allowed
into Europe is still unclear. If the leaders of Europe are smart about it they
will go beyond merely symbolic numbers. If they are not, then there will be
concentration camps on their borders and eventual violence that will mark a
dark period in their supposed civilized histories. Controlled or not, in the
end, many of the refugees will probably find a way in.
Part III – Ironic Justice
[Interventions in the ME by Western powers
caused the mass displacement of populations.]
There is
ironic justice in this prospect. After all, the wars that have uprooted so
many were triggered by Western intervention in the Middle East. One can thank
George W. Bush and his neoconservative colleagues (along with British allies)
for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That action set loose the forces that
have subsequently displaced the people who make up the bulk of today’s
refugees. To this can be added the 2011 NATO intervention in the civil war in Libya,
in which France, Italy and the U.S. led the way. This action has prolonged the
anarchy in that country and is one of the reasons that 300,000 people attempted
to cross the Mediterranean Sea in the direction of Europe in 2015 alone. At
least 2,500 of them died in the attempt.
It
is a testimony to the fact that the average citizen has little knowledge and
less interest in their nation’s foreign policies that few in Europe and the
U.S. recognize, much less acknowledge, responsibility for the present disaster.
Part
IV – Conclusion
The
population in western and central Europe has been shifting in the direction of
diversity for the last seventy years, and that of the United States more or
less consistently since the nation’s founding. Along with diversity comes a
complementary, if perhaps more gradual, shift in culture.
Opposing
this historical trend is the fact that anti-immigrant resistance among
established national populations is almost a default position. However, this is
like spitting in the wind. In the long term, the evolution of populations moves
from homogeneity to diversity. It is just a matter of how long the process
takes.
Thus, from
every angle, ethical as well as historical, the way to approach the present
refugee crisis is to allow, in a controlled but adequately responsive way, the
inflow of those now running from the ravages of invasion and civil war.
In so doing we should accept
the demise of the homogeneous state. Whether it is Germany, France,
Hungary, Israel or Burma, the concept is historically untenable and neither
raises nor even maintains our civilizational standards. Rather it grinds them
down into the dust of an inhumane xenophobia.
Tomgram:
On the Verge of the Great Unraveling
John
Feffer, Splinterlands:
The View from 2050
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November
10, 2015
Tomgram: John Feffer, On the Verge of the Great Unraveling
The figures are
staggering. In what looks like a vast
population transfer from a disintegrating Greater Middle East,
nearly 200,000refugees passed
through Austria in September alone. About half a million desperate
refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere have arrived in
Greece since 2015 began (those, that is, who don’t die at sea), and the
numbers are only expected to rise. Seven hundred children a
day have been claiming asylum somewhere in
Europe (190,000 between January and September 2015). And at least three million refugees and migrants from the planet’s war and
desperation zones are expected to head for Europe in 2016.
Under the circumstances, I’m sure it won’t surprise you that, once the first upbeat stories about welcoming European crowds had died down, the truncheons and water cannons came out in some parts of the continent and the walls began to go up. Nor, I’m sure, will you be shocked to learn that an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim fervor is now gripping parts of Europe, while far-right parties are, not coincidentally, on the rise. This is true in France, where Marine Le Pen’s virulently anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-European-Union National Front is expected to make significant gains in local elections this winter (and Le Pen herself is leading early opinion polls in the race for the presidency), while in “tolerant” Sweden a far-right party with neo-Nazi ties is garnering more than 25% of the prospective vote in opinion polls. In Poland, an extreme party wielding anti-refugee rhetoric just swept into power. And so it goes across much of Europe these days. All of this (and more) represents a stunning development that could, sooner or later, reverse the increasingly integrated nature of Europe, raise walls and barriers across the continent, and irreversibly fracture the European Union, while increasing nationalistic fervor and god knows what else. In the United States, in a somewhat more muted way, you can see similar developments in what’s being talked about here as an “outsider” election, but is, in fact, significantly focused on keeping outsiders separated from insiders. (Just Google Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and immigrants, and you'll see what I mean.) Isn’t it strange how we always speak of the “tribal” when it comes to Africa or the backlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but never when it comes to our world? And yet, if these aren’t, broadly speaking, “tribal” responses, what are? Should the flood of desperate refugees from the failed or failing states of the Greater Middle East sooner or later alter the configuration and politics of Europe, then perhaps we will finally be able to write a true obituary for the invasion of Iraq that George W. Bush & Co. launched with such blind confidence. After all, how many single acts in historical memory, other than perhaps the assassination of an archduke in 1914, have potentially altered the political configuration of such vast stretches of the planet in more radical and devastating ways? Of course, the future remains eternally unknown and invariably holds its surprises. Fortunately for TomDispatch readers, however, it will prove far less unknown because among our far-flung authors we happen to have one, John Feffer, with the ability to channel a geo-paleontologist who’s had some experience with the world 35 years from now and so, unlike the rest of us, can look back on our planetary fate from what turns out to be a distinctly dystopian future.Tom
Let me start with a confession. I’m
old-fashioned and I have an old-fashioned profession. I’m a
geo-paleontologist. That means I dig around in archives to exhume the
extinct: all the empires and federations and territorial unions that have
passed into history. I practically created the profession of geo-paleontology
as a young scholar in 2020. (We used to joke that we were the only historians
with true 2020 hindsight). Now, my profession is becoming as extinct as its
subject matter.
Today, in 2050, fewer and fewer people
can recall what it was like to live among those leviathans. Back in my youth,
we imagined that lumbering dinosaurs like Russia and China and the European
Union would endure regardless of the global convulsions taking place around
them. Of course, at that time, our United States still functioned as its name
suggests rather than as a motley collection of regional fragments that today
fight over a shrinking resource base.
Empires, like adolescents, think
they’ll live forever. In geopolitics, as in biology, expiration dates are
never visible. When death comes, it’s always a shock.
|
Migrants and Refugees:
Equitable Education for
Displaced Populations
Elinor
L. Brown, University of Kentucky
Anna
Krasteva, New Bulgarian University
A volume in the
series International Advances in Education: Global Initiatives for Equity and Social
Justice
2013. Paperback
9781623964665 $45.99. Hardcover 9781623964672 $85.99. eBook 9781623964689 $50
International
Advances in Education: Global Initiatives for Equity and Social Justice is an
international research monograph series of scholarly works that
primarily focus
on empowering students (children,
adolescents, and young adults) from diverse current circumstances and historic
beliefs and traditions to become non-exploited/non-exploitive contributing
members of the global community. The series draws on the research and
innovative practices of investigators, academics, and community organizers
around the globe that have contributed to the evidence base for developing
sound educational policies, practices, and programs that optimize all students'
potential. Each volume includes multidisciplinary theory, research, and
practices that provide an enriched understanding of the drivers of human
potential via education to assist others in exploring, adapting, and
replicating innovative strategies that enable ALL students to realize their
full potential. This volume provides the reader with promising policies and
practices that promote social justice and educational opportunity for the many
displaced populations (migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, and immigrants)
around the globe. The volume is divided into four sections that offer: (1)
insights into the educational integration of displaced children in
industrialized nations, (2) methods of creating pedagogies of harmony within
school environments, (3) ways to nurture school success by acknowledging and
respecting the cultural traditions of newcomers, and finally (4) strategies to
forge pathways to educational equity. Overall, this volume contributes to the
body of knowledge on equitable educational opportunities for displaced youth
and will be a valuable resource for all who seek to enable the displaced a
place at the political, economic, and social table of civil society.
DISPLACEMENT AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
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