Providing psychosocial assessment and support for migrants: A critical urge

 

© UNODC

The number of people moving between and within countries is growing rapidly. However, despite the fact that communication and transportation systems are becoming more efficient and making migration easier, the fact remains that migration is always stressful and at times traumatic. The situation is being made worse as a result of the politicization of migration and the tendency to present migrants as the root of current financial and inter-cultural problems.

To date most of the focus on migration and migrants has centered around issues such as employment, housing and remittances. Psychosocial adaptation issues have been seen as far less important. At ICMHD, the psychosocial aspects of migration are considered a high priority. Studies have repeatedly shown that the risk of physical morbidity and mortality is higher among migrants than indigenous populations and migrants are far more likely to be subject to chronic anxiety, depression, psychosomatic complaints, posttraumatic stress disorders and other psychoses.

Migrants are exposed to stressors throughout the different stages of migration.  Prior to migration they often come from harsh living conditions in their country of origin and have experienced marginalization, social disruption and physical violence.  During the migration process, which can take months and even years, they are often exposed to even greater stressors such as poverty, living in political limbo, job insecurity, extreme exploitation in the work situation and violence.  Even after migration, they often encounter additional difficulties such as cultural conflict, occupational insecurity, social marginalization and in the case of some countries, political hostility in the countries they settle in.  Barriers such as language, religion, culture differences serve to accentuate these problems, amplifying the negative experience even more.  Studies also reveal that migrants have less easy access to local health care systems due to their lack of knowledge, problems of insurance, legal status and poor education.  Coping with these problems is never easy and many migrants turn to behaviors that while helping them deal with these immediate problems, nevertheless present serious threats to their overall health and well-being.  This is not to say that social support mechanisms are not available to migrants, for indeed these can be found in many forms. Evangelical church movements, for example, are increasingly evident in migrant communities everywhere and are rapidly playing the role that formal health care systems and mental health specialists might otherwise have played.  One of the difficulties that mental health specialists have encountered in the past has being their lack of training in cultural competency.  Their lack of familiarity with different cultures and customs has often led to major problems in terms of poor diagnosis and inappropriate treatment of migrants.  In a world that is increasingly heterogeneous in terms of culture, social background, language and beliefs the health sector must adjust its policies and practices and do everything possible to look at the arrival and eventual integration of migrants in a far more rational and long term vision manner.

At ICMHD, we believe that more research is called for this area and that the findings of good research need to become the basis for national policies and programs in the area of psychosocial welfare and integration of migrants.

Manuel Carballo and Madiha Nasir

Asylum seeking: Seeing the positive

Asylum seeking is not new, and is in principle governed by well established and ratified international laws and principles. People have been fleeing persecutions of one kind or another for centuries and the world has seen fit to codify how to respond to this. Legislation apparently has not made it any easier.  In a recent article from Canada, Anabelle Nicoud (La Presse, February 6^th 2012 http://tinyurl.com/7qnadzb) has highlighted some of the problems asylum seekers arriving in Canada are encountering, and what in turn, the cost of these problems are to the state.  She refers specifically to the arrival in August 2011 of 492 Sri Lankans who were handcuffed on arrival and then incarcerated for about 3 ½ months during which time their cases were estimated at a cost to the state of 22 million Canadian dollars.

In Switzerland, 2012 has started out with highly publicized concerns about the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the country (a 45% increase since 2010) and the unwillingness and/or inability of some local authorities to accommodate them. Last week, 400 residents of Pully, a small relatively well-to-do town close to Lausanne, met to protest the idea of opening an underground civil protection shelter to hold 50 asylum seekers.  Civil defense facilities have been increasingly dedicated to housing asylum seekers in Switzerland, and most recently a psychiatric institution has been partially given over to the task as well.

In 2011 the 27 EU countries, with a total population of over 500 million people, received some 66,000 asylum seekers applications. Insignificant as this number may seem, asylum seekers have nevertheless become a major political, social and economic challenge in the EU as elsewhere. Why this should be so is not clear. Most EU countries (as well as Canada) receiving asylum seekers are ageing quickly and in need of new human resources. Theoretically these countries would benefit from employing young able bodied people who clearly want to be socially and economically integrated. Doing so would also help to cut the cost of the prolonged administrative procedures that prevent asylum seekers from quickly inserting themselves, working, paying taxes and contributing socially.

Employing asylum seekers would also help to raise self-esteem. Fleeing from persecution is never easy and most asylum seekers suffer from trauma and a perceived sense of powerlessness and loss of control.  Typically homesick, anxious and depressed because of what they have gone through and the people they have left behind, asylum seekers are fragile.  Fear of not being able to meet the often complex and unclear legal/administrative requirements of the countries they arrive in is erosive of both their physical and psychological health, which is again a cost to the state.  In the EU where of the 55,000 decisions taken on asylum seekers in the first quarter of 2011, only 1 in 4 were positive, and the administrative process can take years.

Much could be gained by if governments would recognize the potentially positive impact of quickly integrating asylum seekers in the community. The global number of asylum seekers is small and the world has already defined their rights.  People fleeing persecution and threats to their lives deserve better, and we should never lose sight of the fact that although some people are clearly more at risk than others, we are ultimately all at risk if becoming asylum seekers.

by Manuel Carballo

Shifting the Burden of Shame: Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence in the DRC

“If they hadn’t arrested me I wouldn’t have known it was a crime”

~Chance, a soldier in the DRC currently serving a 25 year sentence for rape

“I was hospitalized at the health centre. I was receiving an IV infusion one night when the soldiers came to pillage. They pulled out the IV catheters and then they started to rape the patients, including myself. By July, I had not had my period for seven months. I gave birth to twins. As a result of this incident, my husband has abandoned me.”

“In our village, there was a lot of suffering because of the soldiers. For this reason, we were no longer sleeping in our houses; instead we were hiding in the bush. We were in our hiding place and I was sleeping. I saw five assailants coming. They were shameful enough to rape me. I am old – around 70 years of age.”

“Because our village was at risk of being attacked, my husband and I were sleeping in our hiding place. During the night in question, 30 well-armed assailants dressed in military uniform attacked us. They killed my husband. They tied me up and the child I was carrying on my back fell to the ground. A total of nineteen assailants took turns raping me.”

“My husband and I were sleeping in our house. The children were sleeping in the house next door. The soldiers arrived and brought my daughter to our house where they raped her in the presence of my husband and me. Afterwards they demanded that my husband rape my daughter but he refused so they shot him. Then they went into the other house where they found my three sons. They killed all three of my boys. After killing them, two soldiers raped me one after the other.”

“I was walking along the road near the Kamaguana market when a boy from my neighborhood called out to me. I thought he wanted to tell me something since he was a brother of my community. I approached him and he immediately pushed me into the yard and closed the door behind me. There was a man behind the door and he beat me very badly. Then he raped me and since it was my first sexual encounter, he took my virginity.”

~Quotes from “Now the World is Without Me”, a report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, April 2010

A Congolese woman recovers at a hospital in Goma, DRC. Photo: Endre Vestvik (flickr)

While Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) has been experienced by women and men during conflicts throughout history, it is only in the past 10 years that SGBV has been defined as, and declared, an international human rights issue. Previously, rape was considered an incidental spoil of war, or was used as a tool to boost morale, but people are now being targeted purely for political and strategic reasons.

The accounts and estimated numbers of victims of sexual violence since the beginning of the conflict in the DRC in 1996, have been widely publicized, though the estimates do not even scratch the surface of the real situation due to overwhelming underreporting of the offenses.  Widespread human rights violations in the form of sexual violence have been reportedly perpetrated by members of all military and militia groups involved in the conflict. From the beginning of the war until 2005, over 20,000 incidents of sexual violence requiring medical attention were reported. It is important to note that these reports were of emergency cases of traumatic fistula and other extreme injuries that required immediate medical attention only, and therefore the actual numbers are presumably much higher. During 2003, South Kivu health centers reported an average of 40 rapes per day, and 13% of those occurred in girls under 14 years of age.  In 2007, the UN reported an average of 350 cases per month in North Kivu province, and 2,773 rapes were reported in one region of South Kivu. The ages of the women and girls assaulted range from 10 months to 80 years old.  In several cases, local medical centers have been raided by the military and Viagra is distributed amongst the combatants to aid in these assaults.  The rapes are frequently disgustingly brutal with most rapes perpetrated by gangs.  Families are often forced to watch or participate in the rapes, and many women are raped with pieces of wood, cassava stalks or gun barrels, among other implements. There are also many reports of women being shot in the vagina.  As a result of such brutal violence, approximately 10-12% of the survivors reporting rapes have contracted HIV as a direct result of the assault.  In addition to physical consequences, those who survive sexual violence in the context of war, are also subject to intense stigma, blame, rejection by their community and loved ones and loss of possessions, livelihoods and traditions. The fear, shame and demoralization resulting from this violence not only affects the survivor, but the entire community.

© Unjin Lee / afrol News- Two Congolese rape survivors, both HIV positive, in a small clinic in Luvungi

One of the most immediate barriers keeping sexual violence survivors from healing in these combat situations is the lack of prosecution for offenders. This impunity is often the result of a failed judicial system and state, as well as the cultural bias and stigma associated with rape within the society, especially in the case of the rape of men and boys.  This stigma, as well as the fear of further violence if the survivor seeks medical care or reports the incident, leads to a dangerous silence that serves to perpetuate impunity. Furthermore, sexual violence is often not reported, especially in the eastern regions of the country, because most rural areas have little to no police presence, and many of the existing police forces are not properly trained to accept reports of sexual violence.  Additionally, many of these crimes are perpetrated by men and women in uniform. Further barriers to accountability include the failure to prevent attacks, inadequate support of effective prosecution efforts, and difficulty in documentation procedures due to an inability to collect timely evidence in conflict situations.

Excerpt from public records on sexual violence http://www.womensrightscoalition.org/site/advocacyDossiers/congo/tablesexualviolence_en.php

Since the beginning of these atrocities, and amidst all reporting that did take place, 2009 saw the first 5 men to ever be convicted and sentenced for the crime of mass rape. Currently, there are only about 300 inmates incarcerated in the North Kivu capital of Goma that have been accused or convicted of rape.  The lack of accountability and culture of impunity, and the publicity surrounding the impunity, only serves to propagate these brutal crimes and to further the psychological impact on survivors and their communities.  Additionally, this same culture of impunity has been cited as one of the main reasons behind a recent increase in rapes perpetrated by civilians. While sexual violence in the East is still largely militarized, a recent study by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has shown a marked increase in civilian sexual predators. In 2004, for example, less than 1% of rapes were perpetrated by civilians, compared to 38% in 2008.

In an effort to aid in the provision of justice for survivors of sexual violence, ICMHD is currently involved in a security sector reform project to train members of the national police force to work with the reporting and prosecution of sexual violence. This training program not only addresses practical skills such as investigatory and interview techniques, but also addresses the culturally-related thoughts and actions concerning sexual violence against both women and men. Protection of those who report and testify is a main focus of these training modules, as well as the need to treat all perpetrators as equals regardless of social or military status. The education of those mandated to protect civilians is merely one step in the fight against sexual violence and impunity. The civilian population must be educated in the same manner. To be able to create behavioural change, it is absolutely necessary that the burden of shame be placed on the perpetrator and not on the survivor. Only with justice that can be ‘seen’ will healing for survivors begin. Without justice that can be seen, the rampant sexual violence currently being endured will continue.

References and Links

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Report   Now, The World Is Without Me: An Investigation of Sexual Violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

“Our Bodies- Their Battle Ground: Gender-based Violence in Conflict Zones.” IRIN. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. September 2004. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/pdf/in-depth/GBV-IRIN-In-Depth.pdf.

Couldrey, Marion and Tim Morris, Eds. “Sexual Violence: Weapon of War, Impediment to Peace.” Forced Migration Review. Refugee Studies Center. January 2007     Retrieved from      www.fmreview.org/sexualviolence.htm

“DRC: Special Report on War and Peace in the Kivus.” IRIN. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. August 6, 2004. Retrieved from http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/255867dccca8df71c1256ee8003eec46.

“No End to War on Women and Children. North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Amnesty International. Amnesty International Publications. September 29, 2008. Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR62/005/2008/en/bbe6934a-9f60-11dd-9e51-afa0a8282a50/afr620052008en.pdf.

“DRC: Rape cases soar in South Kivu.” IRIN. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. June 3, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=84685

DRC: Behind Bars for Rape. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89761

DRC:Getting Away With Rape. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89802

Analysis: Rethinking Sexual Violence in DRC. Retrieved from
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90081

Climate Change, Migration, and Health

A Changing Universe:

Climate change, especially global warming, will affect human society in many ways. Massive displacement of people will be one of the main ways, and mass migration will in turn bring it far-reaching ramifications for health and development. Migration is not new. It has been one of the ways in which human beings have always responded to social, economic, political and environmental threats. In the context of accelerating global warming, however, the magnitude of the climate change- related population displacement could go beyond anything that has been seen before and introduce new and far-reaching ramifications for health and social development.

The Impact:

Desertification and drought in some regions, rising sea levels and flooding in others, could turn 200 million people into ‘climate refugees’ by the middle of the century.

Although global warming is likely to affect all parts of the world, some regions stand to be more affected than others. Tragically, it will bet the poorest parts of the world that will probably have the greatest difficulty coping with climate change in ways that would make it less necessary for people to move.

Many of these regions have long been climatically challenged and they are also the ones with the least access to the technology needed to mitigate climate stress. Some are already critically short of water, and further shortages will make even the most basic subsistence agriculture impossible. In other regions, such as coastal areas and river deltas where periodic flooding has long made life precarious, survival will become even more difficult. A million or more people could well be displaced for every centimetre of rise in sea level.

A Global Problem:

Drought, desertification, sea-level rise, coastal flooding and the deterioration of living conditions will not be limited to the poorest parts of the world, however. Many parts of Europe, North America, and countries such as China and India stand to be confronted by these changes as well. What will differentiate some regions from others will be their capacity to manage the impact of climate change and reduce the need for people to move, but flight in the wake of climate change will occur everywhere to some degree. How many people will be forced to move, how far they will have to flee before they find security, what will be the social and health impact of their migration, and how most countries will prepare for and accommodate the impacts involved are questions that must be urgently taken up.

source: http://www.unicef.org.uk

A Changing Political Landscape:

Although the exact parameters of what will eventually occur can not be predicted with precision, a number of options can be foreseen. Each carries with it different political, societal and health implications.

Massive migration from rural areas to towns and cities is one of the options that will inevitably emerge. Urban centres have always been seen by people as a safe haven, and many people will inevitably follow what is now a well-trodden rural-urban migration pathway. Unfortunately, cities in most developing countries are already over-populated and incapable of providing residents with even the most basic services needed to sustain healthy life. If these cities are further challenged by massive numbers of climate refugees, public health will become more fragile than it already is.

Internal migration will not be the only answer, however. Millions of ‘climate refugees’ will seek safety across national borders and try to enter other countries where they feel the quality of life can be more assured. As they do, they will confront the resistance to international migration and migrants that is already intensifying all over the world, and which is making social insertion and healthy life for migrants more difficult.

Forced Migration and its Complications:

Other complications will emerge simply because forced migration is a complex process. It involves difficult choices as to who and what to take as people move. This means deciding who and what to leave behind.  Not all people, especially the elderly and disabled, are able to move easily, and when they cannot, families are quickly broken up in ways that traumatize those who go and those who are left.

source:http://www.greendiary.com

Climate change-related migration, moreover, will occur at a time when natural resources such as water and arable land are becoming scarcer, even in temperate zones and richer parts of the world. When and where this occurs, competition for water and land will be exacerbated and could degenerate into open social and political struggles.

Migration, of course, has other implications for health as well. Climate refugees, like all migrants, will move with their ‘health prints,’ or medical histories and health beliefs. They will also develop new ones according to the circumstances under which they move and the socio-geo-ecological terrain they cover and communities they pass through. The further they have to move, the more they will be exposed to health risks and problems that will potentially have a profound impact on their own health and that of the countries they move into. Some climate refugees will move with diseases that are poorly understood in receiving communities and certainly where there is little herd immunity against them. Local medical practice will be equally unprepared for some of these diseases and be incapable of responding quickly. Other climate refuges will be forced to move to zones where they will be the ones exposed to health threats they have not previously encountered, and for which they have little or no preventative or therapeutic memory and experience. Everywhere the impact on health care needs and demands will call for fundamental reforms and a new way of thinking that is difficult to generate.

Conclusions:

In summary, climate change of the magnitude that is being talked about promises to produce massive forced displacement that will have major implications for social and political stability. Public health will become more challenged, especially but not only, in the poorer parts of the world. Understanding the underlying dynamics of these events, and then planning and preparing for them in a timely and comprehensive way has become urgent. To neglect these issues any longer will open the door to even greater problems in the future.

Bjorn Lomborg talks here in a video created in 2005 about how climate change, health, and poverty are of extreme importance.

Related Articles

• Video: Climate Refugees, The Human Face of Climate Change (thegreengirls.com)
• Africa’s Youth Face Unjust Realities of Climate Change (conversationsforabetterworld.com)
• http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=139838
• http://www.focus-migration.de/Climate_change_and_m.6239.0.html?&L=1

ICMHD in DRC: Protecting the Health of Women and Girls

A little background on the situation in the DRC:

Sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become an integral part of the conflict which officially began in 1996 (and officially ended in 2003, and then again in 2007, despite the continuation of violence), and is being used extensively as a weapon of war. It has become a major source of trauma, disease and death for hundreds of thousands of women and girls. It has also become a major obstacle to social recovery and reconstruction within the country.

The last 10 years of conflict in the DRC have claimed the lives of more than 5.4 million men, women, and children of all ages.  The conflict has displaced, severely injured, and disabled millions more. In doing so, it has completely destabilized the fabric of DRC’s society, and much of the mortality and morbidity has been either an indirect or direct consequence of the breakdown of economic, agricultural and healthcare systems. The conflict in the DRC has also given rise to widespread SGBV, which has reached epidemic proportions, especially in the eastern provinces.  Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped and mutilated, robbed of basic human rights, and deprived of their health, therefore destroying their chances of participating and benefiting in the future recovery and reconstruction of the country.

When rape is used as a weapon of war, as in the case of the DRC, the vulnerability of both women and girls increases dramatically in many ways.  Rape, and the subsequent mutilation that so often accompanies SGBV in the DRC, not only traumatizes victims, but destroys their livelihoods, breaks up their families and often means rejection by their own communities.  For these women and girls, the impact of rape remains long after fighting ends.

Since 1996, MONUC (the UN Mission in the DRC) has recorded over 200,000 cases of sexual violence.  High as this figure is, it may only be a fraction of the true figures, as the majority of rape cases go unreported. NGOs working in the eastern provinces of DRC (North and South Kivu, Province Orientale, and Maniema) have estimated that as many as 1 in 3 women have been raped. In South Kivu alone, over 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2006, and 4,500 were reported in the first half of 2008.  One report estimated that about 40 women are being raped every day in South Kivu. Of these women, 13% are thought to be under the age of 14, 3% die as a result of the rape and 11% are estimated to contract HIV as a result of the rape.  In North Kivu, the United Nations reported that  on average, 350 women per month were raped in 2007.

The conflict in DRC has eroded the health sector’s capacity to respond effectively and efficiently to the needs of rape victims.  Damage to local health facilities has been extensive, and the complete lack of investment in the health sector has exacerbated the situation even more.  What few health facilities exist are often in such disrepair that they don’t even have the most basic equipment, and it is presently impossible for them to respond to these women and girls in a meaningful way.

In most parts of the DRC, but especially in the war-torn regions where UNFPA and ICMHD are currently working with the support of the Pooled Fund, women and girls have no choice but to cope with massive psychological and physical injuries that prevent them from going back to their families and being reinserted in society. In order to reach out to victims of SGBV, it is necessary that healthcare services and facilities that can receive patients with dignity and respect and provide the essential care that they need, be available.

The Project:

The ICMHD project described here was designed to mitigate some of the impact of SGBV, and was made possible through the Democratic Republic of Congo Pooled Fund (DRCPF). The Pooled Fund contribution to this project was allocated to UNFPA to take up the challenge of rehabilitating health facilities in three of the eastern provinces most affected by the conflict: North and South Kivu and Province Orientale.

ICMHD has been active in DRC since the 1990s and has helped to highlight the magnitude and scope of SGBV in conflict areas. In 2007, ICMHD was asked by MONUC and UNFPA to assess the situation and to prepare a strategic plan for responding to the problem.  The ICMHD Accelerated Plan for Reducing and Mitigating SGBV in the DRC was adopted by UNFPA and MONUC as a basis for action in this area. In the Accelerated Plan, ICMHD included an emphasis on strengthening the capacity of the health care system to respond to SGBV by building health centres.

The following provides an outline of the progress that has been made since August 2009, and covers the acquisition of contractors, the procurement and delivery of construction materials and equipment, the coordination of engineering plans and the building of health centres.

ICMHD set out to strengthen damaged health facilities in three of the provinces affected by the conflict: North Kivu, South Kivu and Province Orientale.  The objective, using a small budget, was to improve primary health facilities to an extent that they would be able to receive women and girls (and others) needing both routine and emergency care.

The challenges of this project varied considerably according to the location and the political situation in the area, although keeping in-line with the proposed schedule was a particular difficulty in all areas.  Additionally, in some sites moving materials was more difficult than in others, and working with local transportation companies as well as UN partners with transport capacity, was an important part of the challenge.

In some cases, because of the condition of the existing facility, rehabilitation meant demolishing the old structure and building from scratch, while in others repairs to existing facilities could be made.

In all areas, these efforts allowed for newer and more improved facilities to become available in order to not only serve the women and girls who have been victims of rape, but also to provide services to other women who are in need of antenatal, delivery and post-delivery care, and to provide general care to the overall local population.

Rehabilitating health facilities has brought both direct and indirect benefits to the different communities.  One of the important indirect benefits has been the mobilization of people around the work that had to be done.  Engineers, drivers, masons, roofers, plumbers, electricians and many others brought with them a sense of urgency and commitment that if nurtured, will contribute to contribute to the recovery and reconstruction efforts, as well as to a higher standard of health for women and girls.

In almost all the locations, the type of damage suffered by health centers meant that new walls and roofs had to be constructed.  This work, in combination with the better and more durable materials that were used, has produced facilities that now provide patients with a source of protection and comfort they did not previously enjoy.  Stronger walls and roofs will also symbolically offer them an added sense of security that health centers should always be able to provide.  As a result of these efforts, people in the area will come to recognize that they are not alone, and that the health care system in their community is there for them.

If health centers are to provide good effective service to their clients, they must have consistent access to clean and readily available water. This was one of the main priorities in almost all the centers that ICMHD rehabilitated, and required the installation of new pipes and flooring in all the health centers.  Today, people coming to ICMHD-constructed health centers can expect to be treated in a facility that has clean piped water, and therefore, more hygienic conditions and a lower risk of infection.  From the perspective of emergency care required by victims of SGBV, this not only means a great deal to them, but can mean the difference between safe and unsafe treatment.

Getting rid of waste material, especially contaminated material, is just as important as access to clean water.  After assessments, this too became a priority in all of the health centers that were rehabilitated. In order to provide this service, furnace-driven incinerators were built on-site.  Today, the incinerators on the premises of rehabilitated health centers means that potentially unsafe material can be safely dealt with, and once again the risk of infection can be reduced.

All of the health centers that were rehabilitated needed new latrines. The construction of these latrines also included building new septic tank systems and, in some cases, bringing running water to the sites.  Because of local terrain and ground conditions, this task was quite complicated, but it provided the health centres with a needed means of sanitary human waste disposal, and the methods utilized at the health centers are now being taken up by people in the area.

Humanitarian aid group struggles to curb record number of Arizona border deaths

This is an opinion. It is not necessarily supported or shared by the entirety of ICMHD.

Omar Torres, AFP/Getty Images

The most commonly utilised point of entry for migrants crossing the border from Mexico to the US over the past number of years is also one of the most deadly. This entry point is a 420 km (261 mi) stretch of land in Southern Arizona, which is part of the Sonora Desert, and it is where about 200 would-be clandestine migrants die each year. According to reports, there have been 214 deaths since 1 October, 2009. One of ICMHD’s staffers ran across this news report the other day, which raises some interesting questions, concerns and possible discussion.

Connect to this video report at link below:

EXCLUSIVE: Humanitarian aid group struggles to curb record number of Arizona border deaths.

According to their website, No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes is an organisation that is working to uphold fundamental human rights by stopping these deaths from happening. Their mission works under the following themes:

• Direct aid that extends the right to provide humanitarian assistance
• Witnessing and responding
• Consciousness raising
• Global movement building
• Encouraging humane immigration policy.

This organisation, lead by their beliefs, have organised camps and other drop off points that provide aid in the form of water, food, and medical assistance to migrants crossing the US-Mexico border via the Arizona desert.

There can be no doubt in peoples’ mind that the service that No More Deaths provides is life-saving and that it delivers a strong humanitarian message about ameliorating the human cost of clandestine migration. But this also lends itself to a discussion of America’s migration policy and whether or not it is doing the job it is meant to do, particularly when speaking about the ‘business’ of migration at the US-Mexico border.

With the current situation, neither the migrant nor the American public is winning. Clandestine migrants in the US are often only able to do the jobs that people who are legally in the US don’t want to do (at least not at the low pay they receive): construction work, hard labor, low level agricultural jobs, dishwashers, caring after children or the elderly, etc. They are also often treated badly, exploited and made to be political scapegoats because they don’t have any legal rights. The general American public is not gaining from the situation either, as people in the country illegally are not paying taxes or contributing to the social services they also use. They are not giving back to the country that is hosting them, because they don’t have the right to be there. There is something to be said, however, about Mexico’s position in all of this. Due to the monetary remittances sent from these migrants to their families at home in Mexico, the country is bringing in an extra 15-20 billion USD per year. At the same time, however, there is a drain on Mexico’s workforce due to these migrants’ movements. The majority of the people who migrate are healthy, young, and strong individuals, people who could be doing much to improve the economic and social situation in their home country.

Instead of focusing on keeping people on certain sides of a country boundary, the US should reform its immigration laws, and enforce protection for all workers within its borders. Migrants who are in the US, supporting the foundation of its workforce from the shadows, should be provided the rights that they deserve, while simultaneously being asked to contribute to the country in which they are living. Work should be done in Mexico as well, however, to strengthen and develop the social and economic situation in order to provide more opportunities for people to take care of themselves and their families within their own borders.

Everyone should have the right to move and to migrate, but everyone should also have the means to take care of themselves and their loved ones within their own support system of family and friends.

Some thoughts on migration reform in Arizona

Migration Reform in Arizona

Dr. Manuel Carballo

The recent decision by Arizona state criminalizing illegal migrants has once again opened the debate on the management of migrants and migration in the United States.  The Arizona state law requires police officers to check a person’s immigration status when the person has been involved in another offense, and if and when the officer has reasonable cause to suspect the person is in the country illegally.  The law also permits Arizona residents to sue police departments if and when they feel the new law is not being enforced – a provision related to “sanctuary cities,” where local government officials refuse to enforce anti-illegal-immigration laws.  It is clearly a law that is open to abuse and is designed to make the lives of migrants more difficult.

(Q. Sakamaki/ Redux) A Mexican national is arrested near Sasabe, Arizona

That Arizona should be the place for this discussion is not altogether inappropriate.  Arizona state has one of the longest histories of migration in the USA.  Indeed, migrants and migration have always been the backbone of the state’s development.  The first migrants in Arizona arrived from Asia across the Bering Strait some 12,000 years ago and settled the area.  It was not until the 17^th century that more settlers began to arrive, primarily from Spain and other Hispanic countries.  This was followed by an Anglo migration that began with the opening up of the West of the USA and the building of the railroads in the 1880s.  Then, in 1945, at the end of World War II, migration to Arizona began to grow at a faster pace, and between 1990 and 1998 accelerated even more.

Top rates of growth in US states. (Census bureau, 2004)

Migration is a complex process and is largely governed by supply and demand forces.  In recent years, Arizona has experienced a large influx of migrants from Mexico, many of whom were driven by chronic poverty. This same reason led to the migration of people from Europe to the USA in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  The demand for “new blood” in the USA is much the same as the demand that is now emerging in North America and Europe in general.  Falling birth rates are rapidly distorting the natural capacity of countries to meet their labor and social security requirements.  As fewer nationals enter the labor market, the need for others to fulfill the jobs is growing.  Similarly, as the number of nationals in a position to contribute to social security decreases, pension and health care systems need new tax payers to keep these systems vibrant.  This is not simply a challenge for Arizona.  It has become a major challenge for most of the post-industrial world and all projections suggest it will continue to be a major requirement for many years to come.

(Joshua Lott/Reuters) Candlelight vigil prostesting Arizona's controversial immigration law

All of this to say that migration is here to stay and has become a lifeline for the countries and the communities that migrants move to, as well as it is to the countries and families they leave behind.  When migrants arrive, they do the work that others are no longer available or willing to do, and they usually do it for cheaper rates.  They have become the carers of children and the elderly, the cleaners of houses and restaurants, the ones who do occasional menial work and who help maintain agriculture.  While they do this they also try to save what little they can to help support desperate families back home.  In doing so, they have become a vital source of income for developing countries as well as an equally vital source of cheap labor for developed countries.

(Photo: AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Protestors rally at the Arizona capitol on 25 April, 2010 to urge the Obama campaign not to cooperate with new state immigration laws.

Migration, however, is never simple.  Psychologically and emotionally it is not easy to uproot and leave spouses, children and parents behind, especially not knowing if and when they will be able to see each other again.  Living and working alone in distant foreign countries is not straightforward either.  Even under the best of circumstances it is often nerve-racking and a major source of chronic homesickness and stress.

The stress of migration is now being made all the worse by the Arizona law and other similar laws and attitudes that are emerging or being talked about in many countries.  Schizophrenic situations are being created at a time in history when migrants are needed more than ever and when communities have become more dependent on them than before, and when some people are saying that they do not want them, and are enacting or calling for laws that are intended to make the lives and wellbeing of these essential workers all the more difficult and fragile.

All of this is not to say that migration should not be managed.  Indeed, it should be, and much more work is called for if we are to organize and structure modern migration in a way that is good for everyone.  But there should also be no doubt in anyone’s mind that migrants today are a vital part of the global economy, and an essential part of the day-to-day life of communities throughout North America and Europe.  Actions that intentionally or unintentionally eat away at the mental health and wellbeing of the people caught up in answering to the economic supply and demand forces of today’s world are retrogressive, unethical and unrealistic.  They are counter-productive at best, and at worst are a major set back to social development.

A few links to data on migration statistics and the new immigration legislation in Arizona:

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/facts/state_data_AZ

http://www.migrationinformation.org/USFocus/display.cfm?ID=782

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/security/misconceptions-about-mexican-migration/355/

http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/publications-reports/2010-illegal-immigration-perceptions-and-realities-1

Demonstrators hold candles during a vigil outside Arizona’s State Capitol to protest against the state’s controversial immigration law in Phoenix on May 5, 2010.

(Joshua Lott/Reuters)- taken from http://abcnews.go.com/WN/arizona-immigration-law-majority-americans-support-legislation/story?id=10640862&page=2

Welcome to ICMHD’s blog

Welcome to the International Centre for Migration, Health, and Development’s new blog.

In an environment of rapidly changing demographic, socio-economic, climatic and health conditions, the pressure on people to re-locate grows and migration becomes an even more challenging issue. ICMHD is committed to making migration healthy and socially constructive for everyone concerned, be they the ones who move, the ones they leave behind, or the ones who eventually host migrants. In doing so, ICMHD continues to work with its already established partners and seek new ones where appropriate.

We hope to make this a space for ICMHD staff and interns to comment on current world events related to migrants and their health, and add updates on our current projects and interests. Please feel free to leave questions, comments, and suggestions on any of our posts.

-ICMHD

ICMHD workers constructing the new Kamango Health Centre in DRC