http://socialistaction.org/behind-the-mass-exodus/
Behind the Mass Exodus
Published August 19, 2015. | By Socialist Action.
Sept. 2015 Syria immigrants
By BARRY WEISLEDER
Unprecedented numbers of people are desperate to migrate. Stories fill
the media about the many who drown in the Mediterranean or die in
desserts in a failed bid to escape horrible conditions. Stunning figures
released on June 18 by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees quantify the extent of the global exodus.
By the end of 2014, 59.5 million people, half of them children, have
been driven from their homes by war and persecution. Nearly 14 million
were newly displaced last year, the highest number recorded in the
agency’s 50-year history. That included 11 million people who were
forced to re-locate within the borders of their own countries.
Why is this happening? The largest source of displacement is the war in
Syria. Conflicts in Yemen, Burundi, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, and
Palestine also continue to generate refugees, and keep them in limbo for
years.
The toxic ingredient that these situations have in common is imperialist
intervention. The global rich and powerful try to impose regimes that
are more compliant with the Western corporate agenda. Or they back
colonial settler states that police regions where that agenda meets
sustained resistance. In short, the world’s ruling rich act to seize and
exploit valuable commodities, especially energy and mineral resources in
Third World countries.
The Refugee agency hastens to add that the nearly 60 million displaced
persons include only those who say they have fled conflict and
oppression—not poverty or lack of economic opportunity. But people
migrate for a host of reasons, including hunger, gang violence, and the
havoc wreaked by climate change. And that brings us back to the system
that profits most from the burning of fossil fuels, and the governments
that serve that mode of production.
Where are the hordes of refugees going? Not to the European Union, the
United States, Canada, or Australia, where conservative politicians
complain the loudest. Most of the displaced wind up in the world’s less
developed countries. Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan host the largest
numbers. Ethiopia and Kenya take many more refugees than do, for
example, Britain and France.
But right-wing, anti-immigrant movements in the West lead the hatred
parade. Capitalist mainstream parties blame the victims, pass
authoritarian laws at home, and pursue militarism abroad—actions that
are sure to cause more chaos and forced mass migrations.
The UN, climate scientists, even the Pope in Rome point to the symptoms
of the crisis enveloping the world. However, a cure requires nothing
less than removing the cause—capitalism.
A good start would be the dismantling of Fortress North America, the
hyper-security, militarized apparatus that Canada and the United States
have erected against travellers and immigrants. The answer to
imperialist intervention everywhere should be “open borders,” no one is
illegal, and the provision of genuine aid to the underdeveloped world,
with no strings attached.
Photo: Refugees from Syria arrive in Turkey. Getty Images.
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Posted in Anti-War, Canada, Economy, Europe, Immigration, International,
Middle East. | Tagged Canada, Immigrants, Syria.
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