One Billion People on the Move

Take the pledge:  Drop the “I” word!

By Pramila Jayapal

December 18 marked the tenth anniversary of International Migrants Day and the 20th anniversary of the passage of the U.N. Convention to Protect Migrant Workers. Today nearly one billion people are on the move across the world, and they are increasingly the target of hatred and violence. That’s why I am celebrating International Migrants Day by signing the pledge to respect immigrants everywhere by dropping the i-word and demanding that the media do the same.

Politicians and media alike use the word “illegal” to describe human beings without immigration status, sometimes shortening “illegal immigrant” to “illegals.”  This may seem trivial to some, but the language of criminality plays an enormous part in moving people along the continuum from language to violent behavior. Calling people “illegal,” describing them in ways that make them less them human, recasts them as members of an undeserving sub-class owed less respect than that accorded “regular” human beings.

Up to and during World War II, language was a powerful factor in moving an ideological and genocidal agenda. The language of elimination of an entire race—described as the “final solution”—was used frequently and without apology.  In the decades following the Holocaust, this kind of language was widely condemned.  Even today, we see genocidal language directed at migrants worldwide. 

In the United States, anti-immigrant extremists have painted a picture of all-out warfare that threatens the very idea of nationhood. Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan branded the influx of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. “an invasion, the greatest invasion in history … the last scene is the deconstruction of the nations.”

The leap from fear-mongering to vigilantism or state-sponsored violence is surprisingly short.  War imagery ups the ante.  After all, if this is really war, we must protect “our own.” 

Across the world, violence against immigrants is on the rise.  Amnesty International reports that the Libyan government has been torturing undocumented African migrants through electric shock and beating, even shooting at fishing boats because they may have held “illegal immigrants.”

In Sweden, where the far right, anti-immigrant party won a place in Parliament for the first time, police arrested a man suspected of killing one person and wounding eight.  Nearly all were immigrants.

Our own FBI has documented a dramatic increase in reported hate crimes against Latinos, from 595 in 2003 to 888 in 2007. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, armed vigilante groups are on the rise. The New York Times reports on deaths in detention centers due to callous disregard for medical needs of immigrant detainees.

The most extreme proponents of dehumanizing immigrants have been legitimized by the media and politicians as representing the “other side” of the immigration debate.  The Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Media Matters have repeatedly called out their connections to racist and xenophobic ideologies.   Yet groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform are routinely called on to testify in Congress or to comment for news stories. Their racism skews the bounds of reasonable discourse about immigrants—and as a result sets extreme new bounds for “reasonable” policy. 

As economic insecurity heightens, Americans and Europeans who would otherwise support rational and human polices on migration are drawn into fear. It becomes socially acceptable, and even personally necessary, to scapegoat or become violent towards someone else—namely, immigrants.

In this polarized environment, some policy makers have fueled the frenzy by embracing restrictionist policies that further criminalize immigrants. Fringe political parties across the world have exploited xenophobic fears and the fragile economy to come into power for the first time.

In Europe, reports The Guardian, these fringe parties “are now in the position of propping up governments.”  Anti-Muslim views have gained ground.  State-sponsored policies that ban core practices of Islam (burkhas in France; minarets in Switzerland) are increasingly common.  In the U.S., politicians with extreme anti-immigrant views, now in positions of power in Congress, are expected to introduce a spate of regressive legislation, including an attempt to amend the Constitution’s birthright-citizenship clause.

Some are pushing back.  Pope Benedict XVI, reacting to the riots in 2010 in Southern Italy in which African immigrants were attacked, reminded people that, “An immigrant is a human being, different in background, culture and tradition, but a person to be respected, and possessing rights and duties. Violence must never be a way to resolve differences.” 

We need to take the hate out of the debate. It’s time to stop using racist, fear-mongering language that promotes and even condones violence. We need space for a rational and humane discussion leading to migration and immigration policies that support the economic and moral need for managed flows of people.

Join me in taking a simple but significant stand for humanity. Take the pledge: Drop the I-Word.  For more information, go to http://colorlines.com/droptheiword/

(Pramila Jayapal is Executive Director of One America and a PSARA member.)