(In honor of the recent annual World Refugee Day - June 20 - and the millions of people displaced around the world.)
“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: or There and Back Again
Here is a quick overview of the more in-depth information provided below:
Semantics. Some words may not mean the same as others and should not be used synonymously. This is seen when we talk about terms such as: diaspora, immigrant, migrant, refugee, and asylum seeker. Though there are many similarities between these terms, they are inherently different, and these differences are important for us to know and understand within our world. Diaspora A colleague of mine, Peter, once gave a great background on the term diaspora: Diaspora, by definition, requires a visible, consistent connection with a homeland, especially a place described as a promised land. It is not so much a description of people as a state of mind. Diasporas require the regular infusion of people, ideas and language to perpetuate their existence. Peter then asked our work team to think about who comes to mind when we think about the word diaspora. He provided several examples of individuals who may fit within this perspective - all of which were very different from each other. His point, as well as mine was that these terms are used in a way that may be defined differently within different contexts and audiences. If we look at the definition provided by Merriam-Webster, we see the definition of diaspora specifically referring to the Jewish people who live outside modern Israel. However, this term has also been given to those people “who settled far from their ancestral homelands” or even “the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland.” So, by definition, this does encompass many of those for whom we use this term. The difference being that this definition eludes the idea that there are many diasporic populations, as there are many different and specific scattered people groups. Immigrant vs. Migrant These next two terms usually get mixed up as well: immigrant and migrant. Merriam-Webster defines immigrant as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence,” and migrant as “a person who moves regularly in order to find work.” So an immigrant, for whatever reason, is someone who holds the intention of moving from their homeland to another location to live there...permanently, whereas a migrant is specifically referring to someone who is continually on the move to find work. We see this in the case of animals and the way they migrate from one habitat to another in search of food, etc. A person can be a migrant as they look for work, and then decide to settle down somewhere and reside permanently, shifting them from being a ‘migrant’ to being an ‘immigrant.’ We also see that though immigrants may leave their homeland due to a number of various reasons, migrants choose to leave their homeland for a ‘better life’ due to financial or economic reasons, and not reasons related to the threat of persecution. Refugee vs. Asylum Seeker The definition of refugee (according to The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR]), refers to “a person who has fled their country of origin and is unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” The term refugee is often attributed to any and all individuals who are trying to leave their homeland out of fear of the above stated reasons. However, this is the one term where a person can only achieve official “refugee status” by going through a very intricate and detailed vetting application process which in most cases takes between 3-5 years minimum. In recent years we have heard the notion here in the United States that refugees need to be better vetted before coming into our country. The actual reality is that these individuals are the MOST vetted of any individual entering the United States borders. Their process is the most laborious of any current people group seeking assistance. *It is also important to note that the majority of refugees would love to return to their homeland (a term known as repatriation), but the reality of this happening is few and far between due to continued threats to their safety. According to the UNHCR (via Amnesty International), an asylum seeker “is an individual who is seeking international protection. In countries with individualised procedures, an asylum seeker is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on by the country in which he or she has submitted it. Not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognised as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum seeker.” This thought could also then be applied to immigrants and refugees where not every immigrant will be recognized as a refugee, but every refugee could be an immigrant (however, keeping in mind some of these VERY distinct differences which are seen above). At the time this piece was initially written in 2019, the country of Malaysia was seeing a net gain of one refugee every 11 minutes. However, because not all of these individuals had official “refugee status,” most would actually be considered either asylum seekers or immigrants and not technically refugees. In 2019, there were only 175,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia. Another example would be Greece who saw well over one million individuals come through their borders between 2013 and 2018, of which approximately 23,000 of these were official refugees or held some other type of subsidiary protection status (according to the UNHCR). Though we see that these terms do have similarities, it can be easy to see why and how they are used interchangeably. It can easily be a challenge to fully understand which population a person is actually referring to when they use one of these terms. It is also challenging when many times the organizations we work in don’t actually know the differences between these terms and so use them interchangeably as well. Even in the midst of these challenges, it is beneficial to have a better understanding of these differences in order to best serve our communities - to help educate and bring awareness for advocacy and to better provide assistance to the groups of people who truly do need help.
Traver Butcher
CEO/All Shores Consulting
Edited from the original article written in 2019
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