Up to 600 people drown off Pylos, Greece - only days after EU leaders agreed to further erode the right to asylum • Sea-Watch e.V.
sea-watch.org
Open letter by over 180 human rights organizations and initiatives together with Tima Kurdi, aunt of Alan Kurdi.   Today on World Refugee Day, we jointly demand full and independent investigations into the events, clear consequences for those responsible, an end to the systematic pushback practices at the European borders, and justice for the victims.…

We live in a world where 500+ refugees just drowned off the coast of
Greece while the global north took photos from afar and just let it happen.

We live in a world where even a democratic president in the US is shutting the doors to asylum seekers in the U.S. and not receiving any significant political blowback for it.

We aren’t refugees for having to find a new website.

I am NOT saying this to scold people or to talk condescendingly down from some high horse as if I am more righteous than others, I just don’t want this word to catch on because there is so much pain and suffering happening to refugees in this world.

Imagine you were a refugee and you joined the fediverse because you were curious about it and the first thing you saw was people calling themselves refugees for having to… make an account on a new website. Would you feel welcome or like this place was for you?

  • PrincipleOfCharity@0v0.socialEnglish
    12·
    2 years ago

    Interesting thought that is definitely worth considering. I used the term “Reddit refugee” in reference to my status. I am a little hesitant to shrink language by turning it into a competition or making words political. Refugee legitimately has multiple definitions, and the appropriate course of action would be to qualify the term; political refugee or Reddit refugee.

    This sort of concept leads to all sorts of other similar issues. If I am having difficulty making it through a hike and I comment that I need to just “soldier on”, does that make light of the sacrifices of real soldiers who are dying all over the world? Should most people be disallowed from saying that they are starving because there are people in the world who are actually starving and not just hungry? Is it insensitive to say that I’m struggling to make it through the day at work when others, somewhere, are struggling to even stay alive?

    For what it is worth, I’m okay with “refugee” by itself implying “political refugee”, and requiring other forms to be qualified.