Venezuelans are not
refugees, but you will be told they are!
by Ann
Corcoran 3/25/18
I don’t know how many times I have to
say it, but people on the move because they need work and food (or their
climate is changing some), or fear crime in their own countries are not
legitimate refugees requiring resettlement.
By the internationally understood
definition, a legitimate refugee must be able to show a credible fear of persecution, that they will be persecuted in their
home country due to their race, religion, political persuasion and so forth.
The No Borders Left has for decades been
trying to blur the definition suggesting that everyone moving for any reason is
a refugee when the vast majority around the world are economic migrants.
Because the socialist government, in the
once-rich Venezuela, has so ruined the country that people are starving is not
a reason for refugee resettlement protection, nevertheless, watch for demands
for resettlement as the crisis deepens.
Here Bloomberg headlines
a story earlier this month with this choice of words: Venezuelans, Go
Home: Xenophobia Haunts Refugees The story focuses on how Panamanians
don’t want (poor and hungry) Venezuelans flooding in.
Besides the word ‘refugees,’ you will be
hearing that word Xenophobia more often too—-like in South Africa when the
black South Africans are violent against their fellow black Africans. LOL! They
can’t call it racism.
Xenophobia is the cool word, but what it
really means is that humans are tribal, and horror-of-horrors no one wants to
admit that!
Here are a few snips from the Bloomberg story with that
headline: Hundreds of thousands of
Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse are crowding into cities and makeshift
camps in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and throughout the region, the largest mass
emigration in modern Latin American history. The resulting friction mirrors that in nations
from the U.S., where immigration pervades the national debate, to Germany,
where war refugees have upended politics, to Italy, where an anti-migrant party
made stunning gains Sunday.
In Panama, the sympathy that greeted
early arrivals from Venezuela, many wealthy professionals, is giving way to
fear and resentment of the poor and desperate. It is evinced by outbreaks of
nationalistic insults, harassment and even violence.
Venezuela’s slump since socialist autocrat
President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013 is the deepest in the Americas in
recent history. Oil output, the economy’s mainstay, has
plunged as the state producer runs out of money and as Maduro imprisons its
officials and replaces them with military men. Hyperinflation has made the
currency worthless, and malnutrition is now endemic.
Almost 2 million Venezuelans are living
outside the country.
Here is where they are: Most have
migrated throughout South America and some are in the US and Spain.
I haven’t been following the Venezuelan
issue and wondered if there was a push for Temporary Protected Status for those in the US, and
sure enough there was such a push last summer (even Senator Marco Rubio was
pushing it), but I can only assume the Trump Admin is not entertaining it.
I have a little-used category on South America. This post will be archived there
and I expect more news will be coming from that region of the world as time
goes on. Since Brazil is being overrun by Venezuelans will they be so eager to
take in more Syrians?
Endnote: I wonder if the SPLC hate list creators will create a new
hate category (in addition to racists and Islamophobes) for xenophobes?
For example, do you remember a few weeks ago when Somalis were fighting with African Americans (tribalism!) in a Minneapolis high
school? Did the SPLC refer to the Somalis as xenophobes? What a dilemma
for the SPLC, two of their favorite protected groups hate on each other!
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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