Whose crisis is it?

Recent elections in Germany have shown a raise of nationalism that is often linked to a suspicion of refugees and migrants. Media reports are sometimes adding to this fear, describing the entering of refugees and migrants as „refugee crisis“ or a „flood or refugees“. Some people in Germany feel that it is somehow „their crisis“ that directly affects them. But whose crisis is it really?  

I would like to give an example of a personal situation, where I have felt that people where portraying the language of „refugee crisis“ as „their personal crisis“. Whilst I was sitting on a bench in a park, I  overheard a group of people that were having an angry conversation about German immigration policy and refugees. As more as they were talking, the angrier they got and started screaming at each other in excitement and rage. One guy, that was taking the lead of the conversation was apparently really worried that refugees could take away his social benefits. He said that in Austria the social benefits would be worth double as much than in Germany and that there they would already have a maximum regulation of refugees and asylum seekers („Obergrenze“) coming into Austria. So that „illegal people“ would not be able to enter into  Austria anymore.

But what are „illegal“ people? Do „illegal immigrants“ even exist? According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art.14), crossing a border in ordert to claim asylum is not illegal but in fact a human right. (Tomuschat, Walter 2016:126) 

The man further described his fear that refugees would „take away our jobs“ and that they would already leave Germany after 5 years of working, to bring the money  back into their countries where it would be worth three times as much as in Germany. He compared refugees to „leeches“ that „suck up all social benefits in Germany, destroy everything and then go back to their country“. 

I was so shocked about the hatred that this group of people transferred on refugees and asylum seekers that I wasn’t even able to confront them with my opinion. I got extremely furious and just left. Afterwards I reproached myself that I didn’t say anything. But would they even have listened to me? They were so stuck in their world of hatred and anger that I would probably not have reached them. But there were so many things that I would have wanted to say to them that I didn’t even know how to express them and in the end I would probably have caused a massive fight. 

The worst thing was, that I didn’t have anybody that I could have asked for support as on the other benches next to me were only sitting a few elderly people that were nodding in agreement with the opinions of the group.  

The fear and alienation that people feel about ethnic differences, other religions and cultures often turns into objection against refugees and asylum seekers. But they do not take into account that the people they fear maybe had to flee their country because they had to suffer from persecution for their race, gender, religion, political opinion or because they belong to a certain social group. So whose crisis is it? A crisis for the refugees or for those people in Germany that fear to get „flooded“ by them? 

References: 

Tomuschat, Christian and Christian Walter. 2016. Völkerrecht (Textsammlung). Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.