Speech on the Language of Migration Debates

by abdullahshahsangjanigmailcom (student)

English ‘Language of Migration’ Speech

Hundreds. Thousands. Tens of thousands. Threatened, hunted and persecuted without mercy. Violated and robbed in broad daylight. Driven from the very confines of their households. This is the story of a people terrorized by monsters like Bashar and Baghdadi. It is a tale of death, destruction and destitution. But most importantly, it is a chronicle of hopes destroyed across countless borders.

Fellow citizens, I stand before you as an individual who understands what these refugees are going through and I stand before you as a voice for these humans, urging us as a community to pay heed to their cries for help. Humane? Selfless? Believers in international law? Mark my words, ladies and gentlemen. Go and look at the countless families stranded between borders. Go and look at the racist attacks against refugees in Austria. Go and look at the battered remains of Aylan Kurdi on the Mediterranean shore. They will tell you that we are not worthy of these titles. You have no further to look than your daily newspapers and television. Their use of language has dehumanized and marginalized the people they seek to describe. Their use of words such as ‘cockroaches’, ‘barbarians’ and ‘animals’ have had as much of an effect on the lives of those fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq as that of the use of words like ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘illegal aliens’ which society deems justified for describing these people. The word illegal, used to describe refugees in the mass media, is something that is ostracized and shunned in society. If someone is driving a car at 14, we say “underage driver,” not “illegal driver.” If someone is driving under the influence, we call them a “drunk driver,” not an “illegal driver.” How would you feel if you — or your family members or friends — were referred to as illegal?

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‘Migrants’ is another way that the media refers to refugees but this term has evolved from its dictionary definitions into a tool that dehumanizes, decries and distances, a blunt pejorative. It implies choice rather than coercion. This leads to natives disregarding the injustices in Syria and Iraq rejecting these people by labeling them as ‘leaches’ and ‘parasites’ that desperately search for better living standards and European employment, education and healthcare. On the other hand, a more neutral term, ‘refugee’ implies that we have an obligation to people. It implies that we have to let them on to our territory and ...

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Another observation to regret is our approach of dismissing the issue by viewing these deprived people as mere ‘statistics’. What if you read, for instance, that more than 220,000 Syrians have been killed since the start of the war in their country? That 7.6 million are displaced inside Syria, roaming from town to town, looking for safety? Or that 3.9 million live as refugees in neighbouring countries?

These are important numbers. But it is a hard thing to picture millions of faces all at once. Numbers have a way of making them merge, turning them into a blur of human tragedy, a calamity so sprawling, that it undermines our ability to truly see it. It makes us forget that each of those numbers is a man, a woman, a child, a father, a mother, a son and most importantly, a human being. In the words of Rudyard Kipling, “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

As a citizen of this fine country for over 15 years, having first arrived here in 1999 like these desperate people that flee on overcrowded boats towards an uncertain destination, I have observed a change. It is a gentle but insidious change. It is the change in our approach, our language and our attitudes towards our fellow humans. Our language has become more calculated and our hearts colder. And it is our language that makes us desensitized to suffering, and desensitization is analogous to granite, the longer it is left undisturbed and the longer it is exposed to the forces that make it, the harder it becomes to break and undo.

We remember how the Americans turned the Jews away in 1939, we remember how the Africans ignored the Rwandans in 1994 and we remember how the Europeans were ignorant of the injustices against the Bosnians in 1992. We must not let Syria be our undoing, our reaction must not be inhumane and devoid of empathy. Ladies and gentlemen, evil is banal. But the banality of brutal, barbaric bureaucrats, banishing the bereaved refugees and consigning them to a living hell is as cruel as the despot who drove them from their lands, who broke their bodies, ransacked their homes and decimated their tranquility.

But the despot couldn't break their spirit, Ladies and Gentlemen. That was done by us ‘The Champions of Human Rights’, the leaders of the land of the ‘free’ and ‘humane’. Us. Americans, Europeans, our allies in the Middle East, our media, our society, everyone. The world has let them down. And no example better illustrates our callous attitude towards this silent slaughter than that of the politicians and policy makers here in the United Kingdom. There use of language reflects the climate of intolerance and xenophobia prevalent in society, be it the Foreign Minister claiming ‘migrants to be marauding across Europe’ or the Prime Minister frightening us with images of a ‘swarm’ at our borders. And when these words on paper are used by the media, by politicians and by celebrities, they no longer remain words on paper. They affect the real lives of real people in a very real manner. They lead to these people facing persecution, rejection and ostracization in society.

At this dark moment in history, time questions us. Is our conscience willing to wake up now? Are we willing to heal the wounds of these anguished refugees? Are we ready to transcend language and refer to these refugees in the simplest, truest and most humane way possible? As HUMANS? Or are we going to continue with this slumber of ignorance? Because at the end of the day, there is the world of creative altruism and then there is the world of destructive selfishness. It’s time we made our choice.