Do WE save migrants and refugees or do THEY save us?

Do WE save migrants and refugees or do THEY save us?

What do you think about when you hear the words “migrant” or “refugee”? Is it a beggar in the constant need for help? Rootless and helpless in the search of own well being. Or is it someone proud, breathing with liveliness and full of ambition? Just looking for a right aerodrome for the flight of their lifetime. Is it someone who has to fit in, accepted in your community if they meet set of particular conditions and hide certain parts of their own identity? Or someone embraced unconditionally? My thoughts and associations are versatile and complicated: my sister is the bright example of intellectual migration to the United States, while my father had lost his hometown indefinitely in the heart of war conflict between Russia and Ukraine back in 2014, and could be a refugee unless our family resided in the other hometown. I am myself on my third year of BA in Warsaw, Poland, and could be considered as an economic migrant. Out of 12 members of my family, 10 members are scattered throughout the whole globe. Are we migrants or refugees? - I have a hard time defining us, and prefer to think about it as simple power of human journey and destiny.

The HIA Fellows introduction to the topic of rights of Migration & Refugees has started in Fundacja Ocalenie. It stands for “salvation”, which to an extent explains the core dilemma behind any migration & refugee crisis, as well as simply each migration policy decision on the state level - “Do WE save migrants and refugees or do THEY save us?”.
The difference in the answers have shaped political response to the European migration crisis, which highlighted to an extent that policy of acceptance is an achievement in itself, while the quality system of societal integration is out of question at all.

Integration into society is a multifaceted process, which involves steps from all included parties - institutional and societal environment, as well as migrants & refugees themselves. Gagik Grigoryan from the Ocalenie Foundation has highlighted the crucial role of NGOs in this process in Poland. Their activity is focused on various kinds of assistance, educational and cultural support, as well as dominance of EU funding rather then governmental, absence of transparency in grant application process, few organizations focused on refugee rights and inefficiency of existing channels of support.

On this wave, Karima Kanjo touched us with the story of her forced refuge from Aleppo, Syria and the struggles of integration in Polish society. Trying to save her kids from the reality of lack of water, limited electricity availability of 5 hours per day and the sound of bombs, leaving wealth and sense of belonging, she has settled in Poland in 2013 with her family. One of the main struggles she has shared with us is the loss of Syrian culture of interconnectedness and interdependence, substituted by European individualism and personal responsibility, which complicated her journey as refugee with low level of Polish language proficiency. Her husband struggled with acceptance of new reality by refusing to leave his room for 3 years, tracking the news and trying to keep a grasp on the lost world of privilege, which led to his arrival back to Aleppo in 2015. She was worried about the future of her children, brought up on the fragile intersection in the new society - her son preserved interest to Middle Eastern culture and her daughter embraced European lifestyle.

“When I think about the future I have a headache, when I think about the past, I have a headache, so I prefer to live in the present” - this is her approach in dealing with reality, as it holds no opportunity of coming back home for her and 3⁄4 of Aleppo citizens, forced to flee elsewhere.

We all could associate with her lack of sense of belonging, as a person raised in Christian- Muslim family - where holidays of both traditions were equally celebrated and respected- received no congratulations on either of holidays in her new environment simply by not being included anywhere. “People just want to live in peace”, away from battlegrounds fought through them by all the same hands. We shouldn't forget the human faces and pain of stories of migrants and refugees and remember the simple-complicated truth, embodied in Tariq Ramadans’ words:

Sasha Anosova, 2019 HIA Warsaw Summer Fellow

Pieces written by 2019 HIA Warsaw summer fellows represent
their individual opinions.