Last Friday, the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang,
South Korea began. Watching the thousands of athletes march into the stadium
during the opening ceremony, each representing their respective nations, made
think of the millions of people who no longer have a nation to call home. According
to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) there are 65.6 million forcibly displaced
people worldwide, with 22.5 million of those considered refugees. A refugee is
someone who has crossed an international boarder because of a well-founded fear
of persecution in their home country. As a result, millions of people have fled
their home country to escape persecution resulting in millions of people
outside of their assigned geopolitical border. In a world that is organized
into nation-states and likes to keep people in their neat and tidy nation state
boxes, having millions of people crossing those borders and upending this
organization has lead to chaos. This need to categorize people by nation-state is
even apparent in how the Olympic games are organized. Athletes must belong to a
recognized nation-state and qualify at an international competition representing
that nation-state in order to go to the Olympic games, which effectively makes
refugees and stateless people ineligible.
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| 2016 Olympic Refugee Team https://www.olympic.org/news/the-refugee-olympic-team-a-symbol-of-hope |
However, at the 2016 Summer Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formed the first ever Refugee Olympic Team consisting of 10 young refugees representing
countries like Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The IOC gave these athletes the opportunity to live, train and compete
as Olympic athletes. The IOC President, Thomas Bach is quoted describing the
Refugee Team as a message of hope to all refugees around the world. He also
stated that the Refugee team shows what a person can achieve if they want to,
and that they are providing inspiration to refugees all over the world, showing
that anyone can meaningfully contribute to society with their “talent, skills,
and strength of the human spirit.” Bach also described the team as not “simply
refugees”, but human beings and athletes who are competing with other athletes,
and serve as a reminder to the world that refugees are fellow human beings and
serve to enrich all of society. Prior to taking the Refugees and Displaced People course I wouldn't have given his remarks much thought other than to think how great it is that Refugees are having a chance to compete and what an inspiration they are. However, after learning about the often
demeaning and infantilizing language used to describe refugees and the many stereotypes applied to refugees I take several
issues with Bach’s comments. His comments serve to perpetuate many common tropes and stereotypes, particularly the silently suffering hero, and the helpless refugee that (surprise!) is
also human.
Now, at
risk of sounding horribly cynical let me preference by saying that it is
wonderful that refugees were given a chance to compete in the Olympic games and that the IOC attempted to shine a spotlight on a very important and distressing issue. Also, giving others hope is not a trivial or futile action. I also acknowledge that his comments were made with the
best of intentions, but I think they are still worth unpacking and critiquing
as they bring up some troubling underlying assumptions about who refugees are,
and their basic humanity and worth.
First, to say that the Refugee Team
represents what a person can achieve if they want to implies that the problem
for refugees and their inability to change their situation lies in them not “wanting”
to change. This oversimplifies a very complex problem and shows an appalling
lack of understanding about what refugees actually face in the process of filing
for refugee and asylum status. No one wants to be a refugee. No one wants to be
stateless or living in a camp for decades. If it was simply a matter of wanting
then we wouldn’t have 65 million displaced people.
Bach also
states that they are not “simply refugees”, but human beings, and the Refugee Team
serves as a reminder to the world that refugees are human beings that are
capable of enriching society. Humans are highly capable
of dehumanizing people they see as less or not worthy. We see this dehumanization
every day in the rhetoric of the current administration, police brutality
against African Americans, and violence perpetrated against LGBTQ people
especially trans people. However, the world shouldn’t need a reminder that
refugees are human beings. No one is “simply” a refugee or “simply” anything.
Human beings are human beings and should be treated as such. The international
community shouldn’t need an Olympic team of 10 young refugees to see that, but based on the recent rhetoric around refugees maybe a reminder is necessary.
Finally, Bach
describes the Refugee Team as a message of hope and said they provide the
inspiration other refugees need. Again, this simplifies the refugee crisis into
a two-dimensional, simple problem that can be solved if refugees “wanted it”
more or were “inspired”. Refugees don’t need inspiration. They need food,
water, shelter, access to medical care, and to be resettled in countries rather
than spending decades in refugee camps being subject to starvation, violence,
sexual assault, and a world that infantilizes, demonizes and rejects them. Rather than giving them an Olympic team to “shine a spotlight
on an issue” that quite frankly needs less spotlights and more action,
organizations with money, power and influence, like the IOC, should be using
that power and influence to actually address the refugee crises rather than
simply call more attention to it.
I will
conclude by acknowledging that in lieu of a Refugee team at the 2018 Winter
Olympic Games the IOC launched a new foundation called Refugee Athlete Support that
will allow Olympic Committees in countries that are hosting refugees to
identify and support refugee athletes so that they can prepare for and participate
in international competitions. While this is an honorable endeavor, we need
less reminding of the problem, and the humanity of refugees, and more action to
address the needs of refugees and take meaningful action to tackle the root
cause of displacement. The first step in all of this is changing the language
we use to talk about refugees. This includes language that, like Bach’s
comments, seems positive, but at its core serves to reduce and infantilize refugees,
and strip them of their humanity by once again feeling the need to remind the world that they
are human.
References:
- https://www.olympic.org/news/the-refugee-olympic-team-a-symbol-of-hope
- https://www.olympic.org/news/refugee-olympic-athlete-yusra-mardini-appointed-unhcr-goodwill-ambassador
- https://www.olympic.org/news/refugee-olympic-team-a-symbol-of-unifying-power-of-sport-on-international-day-of-sport-for-development-and-peace
- https://www.olympic.org/news/first-ever-refugee-olympic-team-sends-message-of-hope
- http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html
