Xenophobia shouldn’t be steering our policies towards refugees

Look in the mirror, Canada.

Finally, it seems, we’re talking about refugees.

Canada has been taking a hit over the past couple of weeks with critics suggesting that the country isn’t doing enough to support Syrian refugees. Instead, it’s getting caught up in notions of “protecting Canadians” from “terrorism” as justification for why our number of accepted Syrian refugees is so low.

The Syrian conflict began in 2011, with an uprising against the government and a call for the resignation of current president Bashar al-Assad before escalating into a full civil war. By March 2015, an estimated 200,000 people had been killed because of the conflict, according to the U.N. The U.N. has also determined that both sides of the conflict (oversimplified: those for and against the current government) have committed war crimes, and there have been multiple examples of the targeting of civilians. There are also reports that the Islamic State is now occupying various regions of the country, which was infinitely easier to do amidst the chaos. Approximately 4-million people have fled Syria, with another 7.6-million internally displaced, according to BBC reports.

Is Canada a truly humanitarian nation, or is that just something we continuously tell ourselves to cover the racism and discrimination that exists within our borders? It is difficult to find an example of Canada as a country doing good in this world within the last 10 years, and the Syrian crisis is but the most recent example to hit headlines.

There was a time when Canada was in the top 10 per cent of peacekeeping components in U.N. mandates. In 2012, the Huffington Post reported that Canada ranked 57th in its contributions. We used to be able to identify as a peacekeeping nation with some sort of statistical support. Not only that, but our history of welcoming refugees goes back pre-1867, but notably in 1956, 37,000 Hungarians found refuge in Canada from the Soviet Union, and between 1970-90, following the Communist victory in the Vietnam war, more than 60,000 Boat People found refuge in Canada. Compare this to the 2,374 Syrian refugees who have come to Canada so far, or the fact that Canada has now expanded its commitment to allow 10,000 Syrians to seek refuge over the next three years–a big-sounding number until you compare it to what we’ve done in the past.

Out of every 1,000 Syrian refugees, Canada accepts five, according to the International Spectator. The U.S. accepts 0.9, and because we have an inherent need to always compare ourselves to them, I guess that means we’re not doing too poorly.

But really, in what world can we say that our number is high enough?

In every speech or recycled sentence Harper gives that touches on refugees, he emphasizes the need to help people while simultaneously protecting Canadians. It’s fear-mongering at its best: we don’t need to be protected from what’s “out there,” but rather we need to be protected from the fact that we have a government that doesn’t provide sufficient support to those in Canada unless they can somehow provide a political advantage. There are people in Canada who spend their lives in poverty without adequate support from the government. We have been ignoring signs of climate change that tell us our country should be making a real effort to reduce carbon emissions. And it is not nearly problematized enough that there are people in our country who live in fear of speaking the truth, because the threat of consequences is enough to keep them silent.

Our resistance to open our borders to refugees stems from many problematic notions, the first of which is likely a xenophobic racism, and Islamophobia.

As the online publication Africa is a Country points out, even the fact that Syrian refugees are receiving publicity at all is indicative of a further problem. Eritrea is also undergoing a refugee crisis: in 2014, approximately 40,000 Syrians crossed the Mediterranean to seek asylum in Europe, as did 35,000 Eritreans, according to AIAC. Yet the situation in Eritrea is barely making headlines in Western media as all eyes are turned toward Syria and the Middle East. It can be argued that much of this is still tied to 9/11, and our obsession with and skewed perception of the Middle East since. In any refugee crisis, it would be unfortunate to believe that a country’s decision on whether or not to provide assistance to those in need was related to politics, but that’s exactly what we see here.

In some levels of government, we are already seeing the potential for change in the way we address refugees. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and City Councillor Geoff Meggs introduced a motion at city council last week that urged the federal government to increase the number of refugees it was letting into Canada. The City of Vancouver is also in the process of reviewing the idea of becoming a Sanctuary City, a concept that provides “Access without fear” policies to refugees. This tangibly translates to refugees and undocumented residents having access to city services without fear of being reported to border officials. Toronto became a Sanctuary City in 2014, and many supporters point out that these services are paid for by undocumented residents, through their rent, sales taxes and often income tax.

If Canada wants to actually be a humanitarian country, we need to take some time to internally reflect on the problems we already have within our borders. We don’t need to be protected from those seeking asylum–rather, we should be offering protection to them because we can, and because it’s the right thing to do. Politics aside, we need to check into the part of us that is still human, and sees that denying others refuge is wrong.