Out of curiosity I decided to view
some Anti-refugee organizations websites throughout the world. To be quite
honest I was surprised to see some of the rhetoric in the way people expressed hatred
for other “human beings”. After reading the making of the modern refugee by
Peter Gatrell it’s shocking to see how the sense of nationalism shapes our view
of other humans. The quote by Sir John
Hope Simpson that states,” The exaggerated nationalism that creates the refugee
also creates most of the difficulties which beset him in the country of refugee”
has really stuck in my mind. (Gatrell, 2013: 76-77) When nations create these imaginary
border we call home we also create a mindset about how culture is supposed to
be. When we humans create this culture we are angered when humans from
different cultures try to move in. We do not want our culture, values, economic
system, “safety” and so on to be altered. So when a human loses their country
of origin and no longer has a region where they have a created sense of
nationalism and culture where do they go? Exactly, they have nowhere to go
because in this created sense of boards and nationalism we forget that everyone
is a human. Refugees are stuck in limbo because of a negative cogitation when
in reality we are all the same. To show just how messed up the sense of
nationalism can make a person feel I have produced summaries on how refugees
are viewed in two of the anti-refugee websites I looked at.
Soldiers of Odin
The Soldiers of Odin started in 2015
in Finland. As I read a write up on
these individuals they have stated that refugees are putting a strain on Europe.
They make it known that refugees come to
Europe because the “economic conditions” are way better there than the refugees
own country. So basically they are coming to steal the jobs. Leaving citizens
of the EU in a panic. The website also mentioned
some incidents of sexual assaults being allegedly committed by refugees. Which
makes all refugees out to look like criminals. Lastly, it said the main purpose
of the group is to patrol the streets to keep the people of Finland safe from
the refugees.
Act for America
Act for America is an anti-Islamic group
from the United States. One section on the website labeled border security talks
about how the gravest threat to America steams from the flow of immigrants. The
sentence then goes on to put immigrants in the same category of terrorist, proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction, crime, and drugs. The website also states that
the U.S Constitution is under attack by Islamic groups due to the rise of
Islamic immigration within the country.
After viewing both of these websites I noticed a pattern.
They both criminalized the refugee. They try to show them as the lowest of
people in efforts to dehumanize them. They both produce ways in which they are “harming”
the nationalism of the host countries “safety, economics, and culture”. They are not showing the human side of the
refugee as I stated before. This is because the way of which nationalism plays
a role in society it draws attention to the refugee making others not want the
refugee in their country as well. This
is eye opening to see how nationalism and having a sense of pride in your
country can cause cruelty to others. I hope this post makes people realize that
nationalism is not always good and is used as a propaganda of hate in many ways.
It is important to keep in mind that although all humans’ values may differ, we
are all humans none the less.
Here is a video for some perspective (listen to the first minute and a half of the video):
Gatrell, Peter. 2015. The Making of the Modern Refugee.Oxford University Press.
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