Good Refugee Bad Refugee

 

Refugees come in all sizes, ages, conditions. They drive. They walk pulling their meager belongings. Almost a million. It is heart warming to see different countries open their borders to the people from Ukraine. As they should.

One example: in Switzerland, The Swiss National Science Foundation is setting aside one million CHF to help bring Ukrainian researchers to Swiss universities, as part of a support package for the international “Scholars at Risk” organization. 

Good refugees.

Their terror, the loss of everything, the unknown facing them -- is it any different from the refugees fleeing bombs in places like Syria?

Is the little girl who stayed home because she was sick to lose most of her classmates because her school was bombed that day worth more if she comes from  Kyiv rather than Damascus?

If her family risk their lives in a boat to get to what should be to safety but leaves them in a tent city under all kinds of weather, is her future robbed not once but twice?

What about a Latino family who lives in constant fear of the gangs who walks for weeks to get to the U.S. border only to be denied their international rights to seek asylum? Their kids put in cages?

What about an African whose country is suffering from drought or military gangs. He risks his life in a small overloaded boat. 

These are the bad refugees? 

All refugees are people desperate for an ordinary life. Some could start businesses, teach, work the fields that locals do not want to work. They are up and down the scale of contributing their small part to the societies that take them in.

It is only by chance that you and I are not refugees. We were born in the right place, the right time. That does not mean we might not be refugees tomorrow.

In my little village of Argelès, in 1939 over 100,000 people arrived walking over the mountains in bitter cold fleeing Franco. Their photos are not that different from those of the Ukrainians at the Polish border taken in the past few days.

Russia could as easily expand its battle to Europe. We could be bombed. Soldiers could overrun our towns and cities. It has happened before. It could happen again.

If you are in the U.S. unrest could end up a in Civil War. If you're American could you walk to the Canadian border? Would Canada deny you? Would you be a good or bad refugee?

Refugees if treated well can contribute to the society that saved them. It can be up and down the social scale. A farmer needs his crops picked and the locals won't do it. Given a chance, an education there are future doctors, nurses, teachers, small business owners. Or they can apply the skills they already have as doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.

There's another reason to treat refugees well. They are human beings. Like me. Like you.