What's in a name? The debate over labelling migrants and refugees

“We try to create clear black and white lines when you have human beings in very complex dynamics.” - Leonard Doyle, head of communications, Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Complex dynamics: unverifiable stories, cascading needs for food, shelter, clothing and medical care, illiteracy, illness, disease, mental health issues, absence of documents, and trauma.

Why are they on the move? Because they have been displaced by all and every condition of want and fear that reckless occupations of sovereign states creates, festers and when they come to breech the words are no longer useful. What is the response when there are "more people on the move that at any time since World War II"?

The widening circle of nation building. Debating the comfortable nom de guerre of someone who has no food, shelter or clothes? How about Bush's Kids?

How about Bush's Kids?

WTF? LOL too funny. I know Dems and idiots like Jorge Ramos want open borders and wants illegal aliens to freely come in and go as they please. People like Ramos are the real perpetrators and supporter of true terrorism.

I sympathize with the refugees. Unfortunately for them Europe needs more Muslim migrants like it needs a hole in the head, so almost has to take a hard line on them.

People fleeing poor countries at war - refugees

People leaving poor countries and entering western countries legally - migrants

White people from western countries going elsewhere - ex-pats

Hence, Brazilian migrants in Hamamatsu, and American ex-pats in Roppongi

WTF? LOL too funny. I know Dems and idiots like Jorge Ramos want open borders and wants illegal aliens to freely come in and go as they please. People like Ramos are the real perpetrators and supporter of true terrorism.

Indeed. People like Ramos are a 5th column in our societies who's interest and allegiance lie elsewhere, and I say this as someone who is Hispanic. This 5th column is highly dangerous as they are highly deceitful in masquerading themselves as one of us, while engaging in activism for an alien group of people that have no regard for border laws.

They are seeking refuge from war. They are refugees.

@Bad2bone By law in the U.S. Once anyone commits a crime may it be true Latin, Hispanic or other it could be a terrorist act. By law now in the U.S. Even if you shout at some one and they fear their life and leave from that person shouting and call the cops the person who did the shouting threats can be arrested for an attempted terrorist threat and yes if the spit in your food it is harm done it's called an "assault" in the U.S. Your point is moot!

@Kabukilover

They are seeking refuge from war. They are refugees.

If that was so simple and true ... why are 95% of them young males?

Have they just ditched all the females and old?

Sadly, I'd say the majority are just opportunists and, given them the opportunity, in a few years time they will them be importing their females and elders - who miraculously survived the war - to live off free healthcare and benefits.

Japan should not welcome them either.

a term banned by many news organisations for making desperate people sound like criminals

But they are criminals. They've illegally entered Europe. Desperation doesn't justify people covering their ears just because they don't want to face an objective fact. They're illegal immigrants.

And why are wealthy, white foreigners “expats”, while other ethnicities are “immigrants”?

People looking to be offended over nothing. White migrants from Europe to the Americas were always called immigrants, and the term expat is a matter of perspective, with 'expat' referring to one's own countrymen and with the connotation that they didn't migrate due to war or poverty. If media in Syria, Iraq, etc want to refer to these people as expats they're free to.

Refugees - if they flee possible death in their homeland with or without receiving government approval at the destination. Receiving governments usually address their integration for a year or more. I think of Vietnamese refugees who did anything they could to get out in the early 1970s.

Immigrants - if they move by choice with the receiving government approval at the destination and never plan to return to their homeland.

Illegal Immigrants - if they move without the receiving government approval at the destination for quality of life reasons.

Migrants move their lives, families, all possessions back and forth across lands and sometimes political boundaries usually with the seasons as crops dictate or following game.

It is possible for an American to be an illegal immigrant in Mexico or Japan or Europe or Nepal or Canada .... Edward Snowden is a refugee. He fled due to fear for his life.

"People like Ramos are a 5th column in our societies who's interest and allegiance lie elsewhere, and I say this as someone who is Hispanic. This 5th column is highly dangerous as they are highly deceitful in masquerading themselves as one of us, while engaging in activism for an alien group of people that have no regard for border laws." - comments

Looks like some have already had their minds made up for them.

"This 5th column is highly dangerous as they are highly deceitful in masquerading" . . . this is in The States, right? (This isn't a reprint from Der Stürmer?, is it?)

It's impossible to tell how this "fifth column" informs or sympathizes with the displacement of tens of thousands from areas beset by war?

All the better then this observation from the article:

"Elisabeth Vallet, an expert on borders at Quebec University, says language is a particularly powerful tool for far-right parties, pointing to the use of phrases such as “peril migratoire” by France’s National Front."

“Speaking of ‘migrants’ is a way to dehumanise people, of not speaking about individuals,” she said." - Elisabeth Vallet, an expert on borders at Quebec University.

Maybe this is a political issue or maybe the people on the move from madness to some kind of safety for their children and themselves indicates a larger issue than the non-shaming-word-selection hand wringing or political demonization.