Author: Jairo Alarcón Rodas
Being civil means being able to fully recognize the humanity of others, even if they have different criteria, thoughts and practices than ours.
Tzvetan Todorov
At the dawn of humanity, when these were hunters and gatherers, they had to travel over vast areas of territory, they crossed seas and rivers, they invaded frozen steppes, suffocating deserts , peaks and mountains, searching for providers for their livelihood. The globe represented not only a challenge, but more than an adventure, which showed the exploratory spirit of mankind.
Controlling nature was their first challenge, so when they settled in a certain area, they had to establish strong social nuclei based on the new situation. , which brought with it not only unemployable behavior but also made them establish more clearly and more. defined rules for the cohesion of their families and society, based on what Rousseau called the social contract.
By finding what to eat, where to shelter and what to keep warm they motivated what they did, and then new needs to satisfy that made their social relationships and, of course , their lives are more complicated. Thus, with a quiet way of life, the territorial concept gave way and, with this, the concept of nationality and country. What in the past was everyone’s land, with the emergence of the idea of private property, it became the power of some people.
However, the territorial conditions, the favorable or adverse conditions that affect people, continue to set the standards of human behavior and their actions, encouraging the stability or movement of people and, with it, the desire to migrate. The danger this represents was not a deterrent, but an initiative to get a better life.
No one leaves the place they consider their home, their territory, without any reason. The migrants from Asia and Polynesia, through the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean were a little more than 20,000 years ago back, they were encouraged and it was the research and the discovery. better living conditions. The risk that the ancestors took was great, but despite this, they started such a journey. Thus, human movement has been constantly repeated throughout history; Despite the division of the world, the establishment of countries and countries, the closing of borders, the flow of migration continues.
From Europe, the conquerors and settlers came to America, with the desire to gain wealth and fame. They did not find desert lands, and therefore, giving up what other people had, by force, through rifles and cannons, they achieved it. Therefore, they conquered the inhabitants of those areas, and they settled in those lands, making them their own. Transcontinental extraction and human exploitation became the means by which these countries became formidable colonial powers. This is how European countries strengthened their economic development and became what they are today.
The economic crises have caused migration flows, making it possible for many to have a better life. The great famine of 1845 in Ireland, due to potato crops being infected with a fungus, known as the blight disease, forced them to migrate to the United States. Long before that, English settlers had already migrated to that country in search of a better horizon. Similar events took place in the center and south of what is now America. Africa, Asia and Oceania were the exception, they all received the presence of migrants.
Today things have changed and many residents of America, Africa, Asia, poor countries with political instability, are doing the same, migrating in search of better living conditions, a peaceful existence and sustainable for themselves and their families.
It is known that, in order to achieve their development, many European countries impoverished their former colonies, achieving what they are today, but not only that, they left a legacy of practice, death and corruption, which, until today, has not been in them. able to go after them.
In African countries, wars, political instability, corruption, the dependence they still maintain on their former colonizers, those who still establish their leadership through puppet governments, have not let them to follow the path of economic development for the benefit of the residents. In Latin America, the Creole oligarchy, which sees any sign of social progress for all as communism, will be a burden to development.
The difference between a rich person and a poor person in Guatemala seems to be great, which is agreed by the international non-governmental development cooperation organization OXFAM when it points out, Despite being one of the richest and most diverse countries in Central America, Guatemala suffers from one of the highest levels of inequality on the planet. The richest 1% have the same income as half of the country’s population. The power of a transient oligarchy that sees the growth and development of a country as a result of an increase in wealth.
Recently, international news reports bring the news that many tourists in Barcelona have been harassed by residents of that place, under the slogans: go back to your countries, no we want you here more. Similar sieges have occurred elsewhere in Spain as well. On the other hand, Donald Trump promises, if he is elected as the president of the United States for the second time, that he will eliminate immigrants that have never been seen before. The conservative population of that country, even the those who have recently retained undocumented status, support the idea because they already do not want more undocumented migrants in the country.
Nevertheless, migration continues as long as the conditions are the same in the countries of origin of the migrants. And it is important to insist that wars, lack of opportunities, hunger, force many to leave their countries in search of security for their lives and opportunities for their well-being. Undoubtedly, the most developed countries are the ones that provide the best conditions for migrants and in the case of Latin American countries, with the political instability and corruption that many suffer, the United States representing their first choice.
On the issue of migration, there are certainly two such sides of the coin. For those who migrate it is an opportunity, for those who live in the countries where there are more migrants, it is a danger. Let’s remember that cultural diversity becomes an obstacle, because the integration of migrants often does not happen and when there is cultural radicalism, the problem gets worse. Therefore, migrants want to behave normally in the country they came from, continuing with their customs, traditions, way of being, many of which are not acceptable in the countries they came from .
The fear of migrants would not be unfounded if everyone who travels around the world, in search of better living conditions, thought like Diogenes of Sinope when he said, I am a citizen of the worldI bind myself to the man; If everything was like that, there would be no problem because they would respect the rules, regulations and laws of the country where they have decided to stay, otherwise, problems would arise.
The cultural differences are so great that it was news, In Germany, due to the lack of consensus between the native population and the immigrants, the extreme level was reached in trying to create a caliphate in Hamburg On April 27, images showed Islamists in the center Hamburg chanting basic slogans and carrying messages like “The caliphate is the solution” set off alarm bells in Germany. Migration has grown so much that they feel they have the right to apply the law and their customs.
The difference between migration in the past and migration today is that migrants today face detention, imprisonment and deportation from the place they intend to migrate to, based on international as legally valid. On the other hand, the immigrants of the past, despite the cultural shock caused by the encounter with other cultures, did not face such obstacles, in fact, they put themselves through violent means and exterminated, in some cases, their enemies. Now the migrants of the past are extremely hostile to those of today.
Therefore, the fear of migrants has a racial-ethnic component because many people keep the term race and, of course, for them, some are better than others. Listening to a Spanish woman with African roots say, the average Spaniard will never see us as Spanish, because our ancestors were not born here, but if it was Lamine Yamal, the current star of Spanish football, if they consider it Spanish, it is twice as high, if it is convenient things are seen differently.
The economic conditions that affect many countries at the moment, the issue of wars, climate change, economic recession, worsen the problem of migration in receiving countries, because they have economic problems and opportunities job goes down to their residents they feel affected by the situation, when their economic and job security is threatened, that is when hostility arises, as it is appearing in a large part of the developed countries of the world and what happens with tourists in Spain and recently in Italy, is just an example.
