Crisis for who?

A refugee is a person who is forced to leave their home to escape danger due to war, persecution, or environmental hazards. In 2015, headlines filled the news about a European refugee crisis, caused in part by the Syrian Civil War. Millions of people left Syria, many of whom fled to Europe.

At the time, Western news media made it sound as if all the refugees in the world were flooding into Europe. Many Europeans feared that Europe was about to be filled with too many new migrants. Anti-
migrant, anti-refugee, and anti-Muslim protests filled European streets. Yet in reality, very few of the world’s refugees ever make it to Europe. Since the Syrian Civil War started, Turkey has consistently hosted the most Syrian refugees—with 4 million in 2019.

This situation is not unique to Syria. Others have fled conflicts in North and East Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Columbia, and Southeast Asia. In total, the world had over 65 million refugees in 2015—more than at any point since the Second World War. Refugee migrations to wealthy countries draw the most media attention, but it is the poorest nations that carry the majority of the burden. Ten countries —some of the world’s poorest—hosted over half of the world’s refugees in 2016, and none of them were in Europe.

The European Union (EU) imposes strict border controls. That shifts the burden of refugees to neighboring countries like Turkey. Syria’s ongoing conflict has pushed millions of refugees to gather in Turkey as they tried to make a new home in Europe. Most do not make it. In 2016, the EU signed a deal with Turkey under which the Turkish government promised to prevent illegal refugee migration into the EU. In return, the EU agreed to pay Turkey €6 billion.¹ How did this situation come to be? Why are there so many refugees in the world today? Why are so few of them in wealthy countries? The story begins a century before the 2015 crisis, with the First World War.

Nationalism, world wars, and new nations

People have been fleeing wars and repression for thousands of years. However, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century that refugee became an official category. For the first time, governments thought about refugees as a “problem” that needed a solution. Countries created international organizations in efforts to care for refugees and control migration. These efforts were in large part driven by changes in how governments thought about national borders. After the First World War, governments got really interested in regulating migration. Passports became more common, and new laws defined different types of migration.

Nationalism played a large role in creating stricter citizenship and migration laws. To be a nationalist means to have loyalty to one country over all others. The First World War tore apart many longstanding empires. As new nations rose from the ruins of these empires, nationalist leaders focused on building a common national identity. Many leaders also chose to focus on getting rid of people who, in their vision, did not qualify as citizens.

The Second World War redrew borders and broke apart other empires, creating new waves of refugees. Decolonization after the Second World War also sparked massive refugee migrations. Ethnic, religious, and political groups struggled for control of their new nations. The winners expelled or killed their enemies.

Why seek refuge?

By the 1960s, Western European nations had started to recover from the economic devastation of World War II. This sparked a demand for cheap labor. Former colonies were left with more people than jobs, giving rise to the migrant worker. People from across Latin America, the Philippines, West Africa, and the Indian subcontinent all moved to places like the United States, France, and Britain for work. The governments of wealthy nations encouraged labor migration because it was profitable. In the US, migrants from Mexico helped fill agricultural labor shortages. Turkish “guest workers” propelled West Germany’s economic recovery in the 1960s.

Most migrant workers moved because they wanted to make more money or build a better life. Others were pushed out of their countries. One cause was the violence that resulted from the Cold War or more recent conflicts. Many also suffered from the long-term, cumulative effects of poverty, climate change, and ineffective government. Beneath all these motivations was the problem of inequality. That is, while people in some regions suffered, others enjoyed a far wealthier and healthier way of life that seemed to offer hope for better opportunities.

Many migrated legally, but many others moved through irregular channels to avoid legal restrictions. As migrant laborers risked dangerous journeys across deserts and the Mediterranean Sea, their paths crossed with refugees fleeing their homes. In many cases, the line between labor migrants and refugees was blurred. This gave rise to the category of economic refugee. In many cases, migrant workers and refugees ended up as indentured servants controlled by human traffickers while they paid back debts. As nations increasingly closed their borders and passed laws regulating migration, more and more migrants found themselves at the mercy of human traffickers.

Building Fortress Europe

As the numbers of labor migrants and refugees increased in the 1980s and 1990s, Western European countries began to introduce immigration policies, often described as “Fortress Europe.” These policies opened borders between countries in the European Union, but placed restrictions on immigration from outside the EU, especially from countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Worldwide, national governments opened their borders to trade and investment. At the same time, they hardened their borders to migrants and refugees. In many cases, labor migrants and refugees alike became less welcome. This was true, for example, of Mexican immigrants in the US and Muslim immigrants in France and Germany.

The century of the refugee?

The twentieth century has been called “the century of the refugee.” But 21 years into the twenty-first century, it’s apparent that migration and refugees remain a feature of life on Earth. In 2019, there were 70.8 million refugees in the world. That’s larger than the populations of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, combined.

Today, the “crisis” of 2015 is largely over. Yet European countries have not relaxed the restrictions they put in place that year. Governments continue to close their borders to migrants. Each year, thousands of refugees die on boats crossing the Mediterranean. Many drown in sight of EU ships.

Citizens of wealthy nations are happy to welcome migrants when they need their work. But as migrant communities have grown and as they have begun to influence culture in their host countries, some people have reacted with fear and anger. Political parties have used scare tactics to turn public opinion against migrants—especially refugees from Muslim-majority countries. Anti-migrant platforms have propelled far-right candidates to political office in Hungary, Poland, Greece, Britain, the United States, and other nations. As climate change continues to intensify, more and more refugees will be fleeing worsening environmental conditions, as well as political repression and war. With governments placing more restrictions on immigration, more of these migrants will be forced to cross borders illegally. Many will be putting their lives at great risk.

1 That’s a little over $7 billion in 2020.