This is how the world was made. From the early migrations, driven by lack of resources and climatic changes, to subsequent migrations seeking to improve living conditions and forced migrations fleeing war and natural disasters, human groups have been moving from one place to another, and integrating or re-establishing civilizations. Examples of this movement abound in history, making up virtually all of human history. However, with the emergence of the nation state, which traced borders and divided the world into residing citizens and aliens, or citizens and immigrants, or citizens and refugees, the refugee problem surfaced as an unexpected group to join the resident group at best, and at worst, a huge burden, a source of troubles and an inferior category to those who enjoy citizenship rights. This problem, which dates back no further than 150 years at most, did not acquire its founding form until after World War II, with the big migratory waves that took place across Europe and from Europe, prompting the emergence of a new world order to take care of this category of people, that would become known as the international humanitarian aid system. This system basically views this forced migration as temporary displacement, and integration, or lack thereof, in the host countries as a sovereign matter linked to the internationally-agreed geographical borders of these countries, and the role of this system as guaranteeing minimal basic livelihoods or “rights” of the individual. And herein lies the problem. The system of international humanitarian aid, which presents itself as a purely humanitarian system, i.e. “neutral” and thus non-politicized, finds itself struggling under the weight of political bickering, barely able to deal with some and failing with many others, which include residency rights, employment rights, freedom of movement and other rights associated in one way or another with state sovereignty of the host country, which is at its core a political matter.
Hence, the refugee problem is usually represented as a group deserving of “aid” or a guarantee of rights at best, as noted above, or a group presenting a significant burden and an economic/demographic/moral crisis that needs to be resolved. In all cases, refugees are not seen as equal human beings under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, who can be an addition, not a burden, and a resource, not a crisis.
The refugee crisis is a political crisis arising from a specific political and historical conjuncture and framework, and it cannot be resolved without taking into account this historical and political dimension, where integration is as much a right as the right of return; settlement is as much a right as the freedom of movement; and human rights (of every human being) are as fundamental as the rights of the citizen.