Editorial
«Families
forced out of
their homes by
war, makeshift camps
on the outskirts
of cities, survivors of
perilous sea crossings
– news channels have
become used to
trivializing images of migrants,
who are too often reduced to an archetype of contemporary misfortune. These news items reflect
very real situations, like those currently being
experienced by civilians trying to flee Afghanistan. The tragic
side of migration,
however, far from summarizes
the complex, plural,
and changing reality
of this major
twenty-first century phenomenon.
In 2020, the
International Organization for
Migration (IOM) estimated that the number of
international migrants worldwide was 272
million. These people
left their home countries to
flee violence, natural
disasters, or the effects of climate
change – but also to study, work, and invent a new life somewhere else.This figure, which
continues to rise, is frequently exploited by
those who use it as
a political weapon, to
argue that migrants
– convenient scapegoats for
the fears and
frustrations of host communities
– pose a real threat.
These fears are
exacerbated during a
pandemic, fuelled by
preconceived notions and prejudices about migrants,
which serve to
obscure well-established data
– particularly that
population movements primarily
occur between low-
and middle-income
countries, and that nearly half of all migrants do not
cross borders. These prejudices also fuel rejection, racism, and
even discrimination, against
the new arrivals. Women are particularly
penalized. It is precisely to
encourage living together
and to reduce
this kind of
discrimination that UNESCO
set up the International
Coalition of Inclusive
and Sustainable Cities
(ICCAR). The Organization is also keen to remind us that behind the dry
statistics, there are thousands of human destinies,
countless stories – sometimes terrible,
often happy –
and the richness
of a cultural mix
that is part
of our lives
and our collective history. Does the
term migration still
mean anything in our globalized
societies, which are characterized by an
intensification of exchanges
and travel, where “somewhere else”
is now within reach of many people? In Le Métier
à métisser, the
Haitian writer René Depestre invites
us to rethink
the very idea
of exile: “The
process of globalization
is a call to render
outdated and obsolete
the belief that, to have
an identity, one
must stay at
home, smelling the
aroma of one’s
grandmother’s coffee".
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