The road to Refugia

Yazidi families fleeing an attack by the Islamic State near the Iraq border. The number of forcibly displaced people today stands at over 59.5 million - roughly equal to the population of Italy. Photo credit: Reuters

Can we carve out a piece of land that refugees can call home? That’s a question that many are discussing, thanks to the buzz created around the idea by real estate millionaire Jason Buzi with his Refugee Nation project. What makes this discussion so urgent is the fact despite advances in the spheres of economy, technology, human rights and academics, the number of refugees around the world has just kept on growing. That number of forcibly displaced people today stands at over 59.5 million – roughly equal to the population of Italy.

The immediate demand for attention and action comes as thousands feel outraged and perhaps helpless as they see a colossal people crisis unfold in various parts of the world. A substantial number also feel threatened by the same. The crisis in Europe may have gotten maximum attention, but similar issues in Southeast Asia or other parts of Africa are no less significant or pain-striking. And hence comes forward the idea of a refugee nation, as Buzi puts it.

That idea has perhaps long existed in fiction. Talk about the eco-refugees in the movies Mad Max or Water World or the idea of a new-age Noah’s Ark built by rich nations with tickets sold to the elite in the movie 2012. Well, for all its purposes, wasn’t the actual idea of Noah’s Ark also to provide refuge in a time of environmental disaster? These examples, irrespective of their existence in fiction, point to two types of insights when it comes to a refugee crisis – temporary and permanent.

While eco-refugees, like the ones climate change is perhaps creating, need permanent solutions today; the idea that a safe, temporary solution should be sought in the time of need is what perhaps guided the creation of Noah’s Ark, either in reality or as a myth. That’s the approach refugee camps take, don’t’ they? They are meant to serve as temporary shelters until the refugees can be granted permanent citizenship elsewhere or until conditions turn favourable for their return to their home country. But these are desired scenarios that seldom arrive, and often at snail’s pace, giving those temporary shelters permanent attributes.

Where these shelters exist, how they are sustained and how they evolve to integrate with society as refugees become citizens are the key questions then. Currently, they exist in recognised states like Jordan, Italy, Greece, Tanzania among many others. They are supported by the national governments, international organisations like the United Nations and non-governmental bodies and charities. The maximum stress, however, is often on the national government and these resources often don’t match the demand.

A refugee society-state

What this idea of a refugee nation does is that it answers these questions in different ways while also throwing up possible scenarios. The assumption is, those shelters – now permanent in nature – must exist on a separate territory that can be used to form a new state.

Further, this territory and the people should be sustained with the help of donations from the rich – states, people or companies, while the refugees take up tasks most attuned to their skills, for refugees are also people with skills and education, and some are doctors and engineers too. We tend to club them homogenously and often also mistakenly just call them migrants. So they can work there, earn a living and form a part of a refugee society that evolves into this accommodating, cosmopolitan society that takes in refugees with ease, as and when they arrive in the future (ideally that number will organically go down). Buzi is aiming for a permanent, sustainable and universal solution with this idea. So, this would be home then. Essentially, adding to the meaning of the word refugee – for now Refugia (a term coined by Professor Robin Cohen of the International Migration Institute) is a permanent home for the refugees. So either, the nature of the way we use the word changes or its meaning becomes larger.

People from the Rohingya community collect water to drink at a refugee camp in Myanmar. While the crisis in Europe has gotten maximum attention, the people's crisis is unfortunately much more universal than it appears. Photo credit: AP 

But what else changes?

A change in the usage of the word will more importantly correspondingly change the way we respond to it. While, the idea of a refugee nation is stimulating, it must grow into much more than a survivor’s camp. Can it have a permanent structure by itself? Should it?

In fact, what is primitively essential to acknowledge is that, in a lucid form, a nation as such already exists; for a nation is a large body of people with a shared history or culture, inhabiting a particular territory. Currently that territory is fluidic and is dispersed across states around the world. To consolidate that territory into one mass, and to bring those people to that mass is a legitimate response to mitigate the crisis, but it seems unlikely to be a long-term solution to it. There’s need for innovation in responses to this bludgeoning refugee crisis, and as the ‘Airbnb for refugees’ initiative shows, that innovation is happening. It is imperative to recognise that these innovations help deal with the crisis, not solve it at the source. And the problems at that source arise from hardships entrenched in socio, political and economic grounds, among others.

But for immediate responses, I vote for the creation of a refugee station, rather than a refugee nation. Without pre-conditions, it should be welcoming and serve as a platform to provide urgent security of all kinds, support to re-integrate with society and confidence to find home in the long-term. A station that is born under the aegis of the United Nations rather than as charity of a private kind, as Professor Cohen suggests. While the funds can come from donations, the efficacy in its functioning can only be derived from a principled approach embedded in perhaps a partnership of the public and the private. They’ll need to be a setup of governance quite akin to the one of federalism for self-governance to flourish or else this may end up being just another refugee camp. Freedom is what people are after – political, social and economic – let’s not forget that.

Where will this territory be and how will it be procured? These are questions that need much discussion, to ensure ease of accessibility and sustainability as well. Also, this Refugia must not just serve as the mirage of an oasis that attracts refugees, but be a station to help and assist the ones in need, irrespective of existing state or creed. Validation would be another major process again, hurting the pace of settlement. This is an area that needs urgent innovation and rethinking.

Perhaps the United Nations could finally nail the search and finally become a wholesome, combined nation in itself. And would that not be tangible proof of a post-national world? It’ll have to be – post-national and transnational. And when it comes to opening the doors of this station, it must be important to acknowledge the meaning and difference in the words migrants and refugees and to recognise that both these words, at the end of the day, comprise people.

The perils of proposal

As Alexander Betts points out, the premise of the idea of a refugee nation is exclusion, not inclusion. What a blow could that be to the notion of refugee integration and what signal would it send to the perpetrators? One that they can create havoc, force people out and be rest-assured they’ll find their way to this safe, welcoming place? The creation of such a nation/station will have to go hand-in-hand with that of fighting the causes at their roots, aggressively. For this station will also serve as the best incubation pad to come up methods to tackle the crisis at home.

There are more threats. Would the shared experiences of the refugees create harmony and brotherhood, or could the disparate cultural and religious understandings lead to conflicts that threaten the existence of this land of peace? Also, would it not create another class across the world? A class of people that donates and thinks of itself as saviours of this oppressed refugee class. But this one may not be that big a problem in the future, for such corrupt attitudes to charity already exist, promoting what Slavoj Zizek calls cultural capitalism.

Would you help form it?

Despite the perils, if an agency were to ensure the sustainability of such a station to mitigate this people’s crisis, I would. Would you, as long as you are assured of the transparency and accountability of the project? Accountability towards refugees, and you, and states too. For those national governments where these people are coming from shall continue to have stake in this crisis. But would this idea also not raise doubts about the promotion of this charity industry? Those questions are as valid as the search for responses to the crisis, and until we find them, such innovations must not only be debated but also implemented methodically with caution, perhaps with institutional help.

For whatever the nature of world politics, innovation and constructivism are what shall see us through. How we define and employ them may ultimately seal the deal. For, it’s not possible to imagine my thought processes if I were a refugee (it may also be a cruel test), but if I were to attempt to respond to the idea of this refugee station, the answer would be a definite, “Yes, take me there”. But then, I would still seek my home, and there are reasonable doubts if Refugia will be able to provide one in the long-term.