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Refugee Crisis Quotes

Browse 94 quotes about Refugee Crisis.

Refugee Crisis Quotes

“At times it seems as if the whole world has become a refugee and the few of us, who are privileged enough to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock instead of a siren, those of us who are enveloped by a veil of safety many of us fail to appreciate, have become desensitised to the migrating numbers, to the images of the dead, shrugging them away as a collective misery that this ailing part of the world must endure.”

RefugeeMigrationRefugee CrisisSyrian RefugeesSyrian Civil WarMigrantSyrian WarRefugeessedRefugegees
Author:Aysha Taryam
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“An Immigrant's Plight (The Sonnet) With hopes and dreams brimming in my heart, I have traveled across miles and miles. A single desire for a flame of acceptance, Still burns bright in my heart's aisle. You say home is where the heart is, But my heart is accused of difference. Sometimes I'm accused of faith or race, Other times they question my allegiance. Amidst the illusive fog of color and geography, When did humanity cease mattering most! Sentiments and dreams have no borders, Character isn't exclusive to any single coast. We’ve wasted enough time on labels and covers, It's time to be family filling the world with colors.”

RacismPrejudiceDiscriminationImmigrantsRefugeeSonnetRefugeesRefugee CrisisIslamophobia
Book:No Foreigner Only Family
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“We must remember that refugees are almost always people whose homes, family members, and everything they once loved and held dear are either destroyed or seriously at stake…They are simply trapped in a zone in which staying under such circumstances and swallowing humiliation in the “host” countries is unbearable; going home is impossible, because often there is no 'home' to go to anymore; and going elsewhere is rarely an option either. This is precisely what “trapped” feels like.”

WarViolenceImmigrationRefugeesDisplacementRefugee CrisisImmigrant Experience
Author:Louis Yako
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“Diplomats sitting inside their cozy air-conditioned offices most profoundly utter, you must have patience to have peace on earth. To them I say, how dare you preach on peace, you ignorant snobs - tell that to the innocent little kids who are suffering in warzones, without any clue as to whether they'll live to see the next day - while the capitalist circle of the developed world keeps getting richer by getting the shallow masses hooked on nonessential technology, these children of war have one question in their mind - whether starvation will kill them first or explosives. Shame on you - shame on us - who despite having a roof over head and food on the table, have not the slightest bit of concern for these innocent lives forgotten by destiny. There is no time for patience - there is no time for diplomacy - there is no time for policies, legislations and meaningless paperwork. It's enough already. Either stand up and rush to the aid of these war-stricken communities through whichever means possible or keep your mouth shut for the rest of your life.”

HumanitarianDiplomacyGeopoliticsRefugeesWarsRefugee CrisisHumanitarian AidRefugee CampsGlobal Conflicts
Book:Hurricane Humans: Give me accountability, I'll give you peace
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“The first problem with the “how can we help the refugees” question is the question itself. The premise of the question is flawed and problematic at two levels: first, it draws a clear boundary in power relations by assuming more power to the ‘we’, the Western people doing the ‘helping’, and therefore simultaneously grants them the power of choosing to deny refugees this ‘help’, if so they choose.”

WarDevelopmentImmigrationHumanitarianismRefugeesDisplacementRefugee CrisisImmigrant Experience
Author:Louis Yako
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“Should we then be surprised that when Western powers destroy a certain country that there will be an influx of refugees? Do we expect these wars to happen and for their effects to simply stay 'over there'? How can we really expect all this to happen while people here carry on doing business as usual? Do Westerners expect to just relax and enjoy a cold crisp beer on their porches on a warm summer night and see no refugees before their eyes after all these wars waged by their governments?”

WarViolenceImmigrationPropagandaRefugeesWar CrimesDisplacementRefugee CrisisImmigrant Experience
Author:Louis Yako
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“The few powerful Western elites…benefit from wars twice: first, by destroying other countries and stealing their resources under different pretexts. Second, by bringing millions of refugees to Western countries and using them as cheap labor. This is where the strong connection between the military-industrial-complex and the refugee-industrial-complex precisely lies.”

WarForeign PolicyInvasionRefugeesMilitary Industrial ComplexRefugee Crisis
Author:Louis Yako
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“Only those who cross the border qualify for the legal designation of 'refugee'. International agencies and the international media tend to focus mainly on those who cross borders. But those people displaced from their homes who seek sanctuary elsewhere in their country should not drop off the international agenda, and their practical needs of sanctuary often go unmet. Since mass violence occurs in states that are fragile, even though much of a country may remain safe the state is unlikley to have the capacity to cope.”

RefugeRefugeeRefugeesRefugee CrisisBorder Crossing
Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
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“Today, most countries fail to comply with the 1951 Convention. Signatory states in the developed world find ever more elaborate ways to disregard or bypass the principle of non-refoulement, adopting a suite of deterrence or non-entrée policies that make it difficut and dangerous for refugees to access their territory: carrier sanctions, razor wire fences, interception en route. Signatory states in the developing world do tend to admit refugees more because of geoghraphical necessity and international pressure than law, and when they do, they still almost universally fail to implement the socio-economic rights in the Convention. And, yet, paradoxically, many of the most generous host countries in the world are not even full signatories: Jordan, Lebanon, Thailand, Nepal, and Turkey, for instance.”

PoliticsRefugeesRefugee CrisisInternational Politics
Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
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“I saw now why the angry young men on the boats around us were so afraid of that derelict refugee boat: that tiny vessel represented the overturning of a centuries-old project that had been essential to the shaping of Europe. Beginning with the early days of chattel slavery, the European imperial powers had launched upon the greatest and most cruel experiment in planetary remaking that history has ever known: in the service of commerce they had transported people between continents on an almost unimaginable scale, ultimately changing the demographic profile of the entire planet. But even as they were repopulating other continents they had always tried to preserve the whiteness of their own metropolitan territories in Europe. This entire project had now been upended. The systems and technologies that had made those massive demographic interventions possible – ranging from armaments to the control of information – had now achieved escape velocity: they were no longer under anyone’s control. This was why those angry young men were so afraid of that little blue fishing boat: through the prism of this vessel they could glimpse the unravelling of a centuries-old project that had conferred vast privilege on them in relation to the rest of the world. In their hearts they knew that their privileges could no longer be assured by the people and institutions they had once trusted to provide for them. The world had changed too much, too fast; the systems that were in control now did not obey any human master; they followed their own imperatives, inscrutable as demons.”

Refugee CrisisSlave TradeAnti Immigration
Book:Gun Island
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“Before you hate refugees, remember that ideally, most people wish to live peacefully and with their dignity intact. Remember that many of these refugees would rather come to you as ‘tourists’ with cameras in their hands under much better circumstances rather than as people with no options but to put up with the hate and humiliation awaiting them in the often not so hospitable ‘host’ counties. Before you protest refugees, protest your governments that are either intervening militarily in their countries or arming different groups and factions in their territories to kill each other. The refugee crisis is a deeply political crisis for all actors involved. Before you go in the streets demanding ‘no more refugees,’ rest assured, that these people would never have chosen to come all the way here to take your menial job offers while see you protest their very human existence. Likewise, before you extend your benevolence to these refugees by ‘tolerating’ them, as if doing them a favor, remember, that you actually can really love them because there is so much you can learn from their stories. There is so much work that can be accomplished when you hold hands with these refugees towards mutual human goals.”

WarHatePoliticsForeign PolicySolidarityRefugeesDecolonizationDisplacementRefugee Crisis
Author:Louis Yako
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“If we do not change our negative habits toward climate change, we can count on worldwide disruptions in food production, resulting in mass migration, refugee crises and increased conflict over scarce natural resources like water and farm land. This is a recipe for major security problems.”

IfsProblemWaterNaturalLandSecurityHabitConflictMajorsMassResourcesNegativeCrisisClimateClimate ChangeProductionsFarmsRefugeeRecipesScarceNatural ResourcesDisruptionMigrationRefugee CrisisFood ProductionScarce Resources
Author:Michael Franti
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“We all have to accept accusations that we ignored the refugee crisis for far too long. The first time that I referred to the Mediterranean Sea as Europe's cemetery was in October 2013, when hundreds of people drowned off Lampedusa. Italians, Maltese, Greeks and Spaniards have been pleading for help for years. But nobody cared.”

PeopleYearsFirstsLongHas BeensHelpingAcceptingSeaFirst TimeEuropeCrisisGreekIgnoredRefugeeOctoberCemeteryAccusationPleadingNobody CaresRefugee CrisisSpaniardsMediterranean Sea
Author:Martin Schulz
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“As the refugee crisis unfolds across Europe, another is looming in our backyard. The number of children crossing the southwest border unaccompanied has quietly surged more than a year after President [Barack] Obama referred to the problem as a quote "urgent humanitarian situation."”

YearsChildrenProblemPresidentNumbersSituationEuropeCrisisHumanitarianBarackBordersRefugeeUrgentCrossingsPresident Barack ObamaBackyardsRefugee CrisisLooming
Author:Joy-Ann Reid
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“Everybody is always talking about droughts and sea level rise, but when human civilization, with more crowding and greater resource depletion, is under that much stress, it translates into wars and huge displaced populations. The Syrian refugee crisis is just a first taste of what it's going to be like. I don't want my kids growing up in that kind of world.”

WorldWantFirstsHumansKindWarKidsLevelsTalkingGrowing UpGreaterGrowingSeaHugeCivilizationTasteResourcesStressCrisisPopulationTranslateRefugeeDroughtKids Growing UpRefugee CrisisHuman CivilizationSyrian RefugeesSea Level RiseResource Depletion
Author:James Cameron
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“Since it took up office, the Commission which I lead has pursued a clear policy: we need less interference from Brussels when it comes to the things that Member States can deal with better on their own. That is why we no longer regulate oil cans or showerheads, but concentrate instead on what we can do better together rather than alone - such as tackling the refugee crisis or securing our external borders. Only in that way can we make people feel that Europe makes a tangible difference.”

PeopleWayNeedsFeelsStatesTogetherCan DoDifferencesDealsClearPolicyMembersOfficeEuropeCrisisOilBordersRefugeePursuedTangibleInterferenceTacklingRefugee CrisisBrusselsBetter Together
Author:Jean-Claude Juncker
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“My hunch, for what it's worth, is that most of us probably find it much, much harder than we realize to really imagine what catastrophe is like. I have a hunch that we all labor under this rather convenient illusion that if we read about the Syrian refugee crisis, we can imagine what it feels like to set off from your home and your life with all your possessions in two bin liners. We all think that we can imagine that and my guess is that none of us have got a clue.”

IfsThinkingFeelsTwoHomeRealizingImagineIllusionLaborHarderCrisisPossessionImagine ThatCatastropheClueRefugeeConvenientHunchesRefugee CrisisSyrian Refugees
Author:Decca Aitkenhead
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