Refugees? Asylees? Migrants? Illegals? Lots of us are getting some basics about the Central American caravan wrong; tweets and images go viral and we’re not necessarily better informed as a result. I think this says a lot about who gets to be fully human in society. A thread.
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A refugee is a person who’s not yet in the US and is applying to get here. An asylum-seeker is a person who is already on US soil. Refugees/asylum seekers are different from immigrants/migrants. Oh and “illegals” is an inadequate and incorrect term that criminalizes human beings.
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The motivations for arrival between refugees/asylees and immigrants/migrants are fundamentally different. There are also different domestic laws and international human rights treaties that inform what specifically should happen with refugees/asylees.
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A person seeking asylum may do so at a port-of-entry or once already in the US, even without authorization. The US has a responsibility to consider anyone’s petition for asylum. Turning people away who are asking for asylum is against domestic and international law.
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Several people have pointed out that we should refer to those on the caravan as refugees. I get why: it’s a group of people who say they’re fleeing persecution. However, refugees are technically people who already applied as refugees before coming to the United States.
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Applying to be recognized as a refugee from Central America to the US is a long shot and likely a waste of time. That’s why people practice their rights and come to a port-of-entry: once they’re physically here, a bunch of laws say they can’t just be sent back.
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While the term refugee doesn’t exactly fit people on the caravan, asylees doesn’t perfectly fit, either. Not until they reach a port-of-entry. When people are on their way to claim asylum, they’re something like soon-to-be asylees. Asylum-seekers is probably the best term.
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It’s not necessarily by design that we don’t have a perfect term, but Central Americans fleeing persecution isn’t new. If language reflects culture then we live in a culture where we have no term to describe *generations* of brown people fleeing state violence in groups.
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As I explained earlier, immigrants/migrants are incorrect terms here, both for practical and legal reasons. The most incorrect term? “Illegals.” Coming to a port-of-entry and asking for asylum is legal. Doing so is recognized by domestic and international law. Period.
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More than anything else (and for journalists especially since that’s whose getting a lot of this stuff wrong!) be conscious of the words you’re using and what they mean. For more on this, I suggest following scholar
@AbregoLeisy and my homie (and also a scholar)@PalmTreesnGz.1 reply 5 retweets 21 likesShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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