Humanity across borders

To all humanity,

It takes a village to raise a child. So says an African proverb.

The proverb literally means that for a child to become a healthy adult, the entire community takes an active role in contributing to the rearing of the child. Regardless of the child’s biological parent(s), his/her upbringing belongs to the community. A child, therefore, does not grow up in a single home. The essence of the proverb speaks to a worldwide view that challenges individualism.

It is to that foundation that I then wonder, why do people feel obligated to discriminate against a migrant? Do they feel it’s never their responsibility to take care of the other just because they come from a different ‘home’? Or does their humanity suddenly stop!

With that, I say, it takes all of humanity to care and extend a hand to an immigrant, a refugee and an internally displaced person because we are a community and they do not cease to be human anyway just because they have crossed borders.

Allow me take you along my personal journey with migrants and an internally displaced person.

Joshua, (real name withheld), was about nine or ten years old when I met him. I was covering the relief response as disaster communications person of the organization I was working with that time, as there was an armed conflict that happened down south of the Philippines. He was one of the evacuees as their community was affected by the conflict.

I recall him saying, “I don’t want to be called ‘bakwit’ (Filipino slang which means an evacuee) because it is demeaning. You leave your house without anything.”

His statement brings to my attention that stereotyping has great impact on the people being labeled with names. As an evacuee, they are the ones who suffer the consequences of conflict or war. He did not choose to be one.

So next time, before you label anyone or use one that was already established, think twice. Be sensitive.

As a member of the human race, you have a voice that can make a difference to someone who was forced to leave his/her own house. Why not make sure that they still maintain their dignity despite what happened instead?

Let me move on to another anecdote. This one was about an immigrant.

Her name is Deborah (not her real name). She’s a young indigenous woman in her early twenties. I met her through a friend. She’s bubbly, always with a smile on her face. She’s keen to learn English so this was why we had scheduled to meet weekly or as often as possible in the orange table and chairs in the yard of my apartment together with her three other friends. Sometimes, we would talk up to sun set and had to use the flashlight of my cellphone, as the lights were dim and our hands would be busy swatting mosquitoes from time to time. But recently, we transferred our meeting to the apartment her friend rented so that we can start off with dinner.

During one of our conversations, my curiosity drove me to ask her how she had learnt English; she told me she had learned it while in a refugee camp. That’s when I learned she is an immigrant.

She’s currently staying with her brother and is taking care of her niece. Her brother, who is also an immigrant, is working in the country where they are currently living. They are trying to make a better life. They work hard and are contributing to their adopted country as much as they can.

So you see immigrants just do not wait for dole outs. If you create opportunities for them to earn, they will. They prefer “to receive a net so they can do the fishing themselves to survive instead of just waiting for the fish to be provided to them.”

That aside, they want to go back to their own countries! As the common saying goes East or West, home is best!

Deborah always worried if her mother, together with her siblings, who were left back home, were ok. Until now, her mother and brother are in a refugee camp. I don’t have the specifics but all I know is that her country has been experiencing conflict for some time.

The reality of being away from their families is one of the challenges that they face. Being reunited with them is a hope that they are holding on to.

Global Trends, a report released by the UN Refugee Agency, stated that 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015 crossing the threshold of 60 million, which is a first time in the organization’s history. Inthe UNHCR'sinfographics (please see gallery), it shows that65.3 million people worldwide are forcibly displaced - roughly the population of France. There are 21.3 million refugees, 40.8 million internally displaced people and 3.2 million asylum-seekers. Also, inevery minute 24 people are displaced and that 1 in every 113 people on earth is an asylum seeker, internally displaced or refugee.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, “At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year. On land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders. Closing borders does not solve the problem.”

If you are a person working in the government, or someone who can make a difference in regard to the situation of refugees or immigrants including the internally displaced persons, I hope that you hear my cry, together with theirs and make every effort to provide solutions to the problems that cause for these things to happen.

And for the people hosting refugees or migrants or with internally displaced persons, it is my prayer that you treat them as humanly as possible, because they are still part of the community and it is our obligation to raise them despite not being our biological children! It’s a choice worth giving a try!

I do hope that you take the better choice. Do not let the lines across the countries dictate how you act. For it takes all of humanity to care and extend a hand to an immigrant, a refuge and an internally displaced person.

As Grandi said, “The willingness of nations to work together not just for refugees but for the collective human interest is what’s being tested today, and it’s this spirit of unity that badly needs to prevail.”

Let your humanity shine through across borders.

Peace,

Shirley

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