The Migrant Crisis

Recently, the social media COVID boredom scrolling has been severely interrupted by images that don’t seem to make much sense. At least on the surface. Migrant workers walking miles with elderly parents or hungry children on their shoulders, children bicycling across state borders to ferry their parents back, desperate deaths by the side of highways – in railway stations – waiting, travelling, yearning faces which we always have had around us, but just hadn’t realized to be migrant workers. Once the dust of ‘who they are’ settled, the ‘why’ started becoming louder. Why would they want to travel back? Why weren’t they sheltering in place (as the Govt. apparently had assumed, they would do)? Why didn’t the Govt. know how the informal economy works? Why didn’t we know who the folks who clean our homes, maintain our streets, serve us in restaurants, build our condominiums are? In reality, all these whys are a singular question. How can the thoughts and motivations of some be so desperate that they’d be in these cities for so less and yet, would risk death for reaching home?

I have heard this same question before. Not too long ago, the US was at the forefront with immigrant children getting snatched off their parents and families getting hosed down with water guns. Stories of immigrants from Latin America dying desperate deaths on the US Mexico border Mohave desert, thirsting for water, have been daily ones for decades. Why would they do such a thing? And if they do come, so dire, why are they so eager to go back? Why can they never feel at home in the shacks of New York or Los Angeles they so badly craved?

Europe and Africa or the Middle East. Dead toddlers washing up on shores, what we question is why would a father put his children on boats sure to sink?

What is touted most as the acceptable rationale for moving people – or migrants – or immigrants –whatever the definition - is conflict or persecution. Well, at least if they were dying where they were, we can understand. I had read innumerable comments on migrants waiting in day-long lines at the US border (for getting processed) saying basically the same thing: they don’t look to be dying or in hunger or poverty – some seem to be smiling even – then? What gives?

What gives is a lack of our understanding of reality, the experience, and therefore, the wishes of anyone socio-economically different from us even though the instincts are not very different from those of our own. More importantly, it’s this motivation that sustains the global economy. Fear of death is not the only motivator. Betterment. A mere wanting of a different experience for oneself or loved ones. Freedom, quality of living, access to conveniences, anything really can be a reason and an adamantly valid reason for humans seeking a life away from their homeland. Although more often than not, safety and livelihood are the reasons, it’s condescending of the state (or worse, us) to assume these to be the only things that matter. That is a devaluation of life and is no different from the opinion of those who– advise a father to weather a downturn instead of trying to cross the oceans - snatching away the respect of choice from him. Assuming that just because he is in a war-torn or impoverished nation, he should want less.

 Several migrants whose narrations were featured in the COVID lockdown crises in India said that they wanted to go back home. Yes, they could find mere food and a place to sleep to be able to survive the lockdown in the city – but once their reason for being in the city (aka livelihood) was gone or reduced - they craved the comfort and dignity of a home. And we would have wanted exactly the same. Yet, we expect them to not want anything beyond food and a place to lie down. We want them to be in their villages when slum problem crowds us, magically appear to provide service and be in the cities when borders close.

We humans constantly seek betterment. In from our lockdown couches, we worry about our careers – the missed promotions – delayed book launches – furloughs – salary cuts. We worry about our mental health and that of our loved ones. Everyone has the right to do so. The crises are not because of unjust wants or irrational decisions. The crises are because of the unequal distribution of opportunities, infrastructure, and resources. Migration - at a human cost - in and out of cities, nations, hot spots - will continue if there is an equilibrium that can be achieved by movement. The reality in the world today which is clustered in opportunities. Segregated. Conflicted. Unequal.