The word ‘refugee’ has been recent buzz word in the news. Having recently moved back into the UK after spending a year studying in Germany, I have had the privilage of comparing both the United Kingdom and the German approaches towards refugees. Having met a few Syrian refugees and listening to their stories of the struggles and determination of learning new languages and carrying on university education, I feel that Germany had a much more humanitarian approach towards people and giving them a refugee status.
I found myself identifying with a lot of Syrians my age who had fled Syria and had come to Germany. I found them to be humble and willing to learn. While I took my German language classes as an ERASMUS student, many beside me learnt German because they simply had to. For them this seemed much more challenging linguistically, especially as they come from an Arabic-speaking background. Despite that, most of the Arabic-speaking friends I made during my language classes excelled ahead of me, learning English and German at the same time. My encounters with these refugees made me think twice about the oppression and the struggles of having to abandon one’s country due to war and flee to another land to seek safety. I found that many Germans had an attitude of compassion and saw this as a humanitarian crisis that involved everyone, not just the Syrians.
A month ago I had finished my study abroad scheme and had moved back into the UK. At first upon my return I could not get used to the hostility in the press – the general sentiment being used to describe the refugee crisis was filled with negative connotations and a sense of impending doom for Europe. However, over night one image changed everything. The image of a three-year-old Syrian refugee was taken up by the press all over Europe. The images of Alan have helped shift debate across Europe and contributed to a public outcry over the plight of refugees trying to reach the continent.
The German newspaper Bild decided to remove the images from its paper after readers voiced views that such graphic images of Aylan should not be plastered all over newspapers. Although this is another debate, it was important for many to recognise the truth. They say that “an image is worth a thousand words” – and this could not be more true than now. If the image has sparked compassion amongst many, especially those in Britain, it has been used to stop many other children dying daily without images of their bodies going viral for people to realise the truth. The aftermath of Aylan’s image had been compared to the famous ‘Vietnamese girl running from a napalm strike during the Vietnam war’, which showed the brutal reality of the suffering of childern in a war zone.
The debate of plastering images of the dead in our national newspapers is an important one. On one hand images can be exploited to portray a narrative which lacks real stories of those in the photographs. On the other hand the same images are used to show the horrific realities of how borders divide humanity. There is no doubt that artists have been combining art with imagery to show the nationalistic side of humanitarian crisis. Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” has been reproduced on a ruined building in Syria by an artist called Tammam Azzam to depict the saddening reality of destruction and how a young generation of Syrian creatives need a stable environment to thrive. Many began to highlight that a world without refugees may look a lot different. History’s most famous refugees have included Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein to present day’s which include musicians such as M.I.A or Steve Jobs who himself was a son of a Syrian refugee.
Globalisation encourages nations without borders in terms of trade and businesses but when it comes down to human beings in war zones it’s harder to compromise. However, the British Government announced a policy change. The government recently announced it will take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the span of the next five years. In comparison, Germany said that they will welcome 500,000 Syrian refugees per year. In the UK most of these refugees could be deported at the age of 18 after a five-year period. Many campaigners say that this is not the kind of “compassion” that they hoped for from the government. As a response a protest has been organised in London this Saturday (12th September) to show solidarity with the refugees and push for further action to be taken.
A tweet by the Channel 4 journalist Jamal Osman raised an interesting point:
“#MoFarah wins another gold medal. Imagine if #Britain refused to give him asylum as a #Somali refugee. Refugees make positive contributions.”
A lot of confusion arrises as many often confuse the terms “migrant” and “refugee”, which leads to hostile attitudes amongst the British population. Efforts must be made to show the differences between the two groups and how refugees don’t leave their homelands by choice, but are forced to flee in order gain safety. We must think broader than borders and welcome those who risk everything for a stable environment.
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