Post No. 3,218 - International conventions, and changing the definition/understanding of refugee/migrant

One of the many devastations caused by World War (part) Two was people being forced to flee their homes for their safety or even their lives. 

In a word, refugees - although today that is limited to hose who have crossed national borders, with “internally displaced person” for those who have not. 

This page suggests the number of displaced people included 65 million in Europe, but there were also millions displaced, including for slave labour, elsewhere in the world, and, after the war ended, there were further displacements as borders changed.  

In 1943 the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) * was created to help return people to where they had come from - which is not a simple matter: once the fighting has ceased, the damage has to be undone enough for people to be able to survive, at the very least, and there will be transport, coordination, and identification (to help reunify families as well as weed out war criminals), the changes of borders mentioned above, etc. 

*  The organisation we know today as the United Nations did not exist then: the “United Nations” reference was more to the alliance of nations and intent to do something after the war. See also this brochure about the UNRRA - which later became the International Refugee Organisation in 1946, and helped 10 million out of 15 million “stranded people” in Europe, and then transferred its duties to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the early 1950s.   

In the post war years, the desire for a better world competed with exhaustion, resource limitations, and the new Cold War politics, but an international convention was agreed to provide a management framework for refugees, and that was the “Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees”, which entered into force in 1954, and: 

• defined a refugee (in Article 1A(2)) as a person who 
• “owing to well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it”;   

and    

• provided protections including:   non-refoulement,   protection against punishment for irregular arrival (“The Refugee Convention recognises that refugees often need to enter a country without permission, or with false documents, to obtain protection.Under Article 31 of the Convention, countries who have signed the Convention cannot punish refugees for entering or living without permission, or unnecessarily restrict their freedom of movement”),   and   defined their rights, including  the right to a travel document, freedom of religion, the right to work and the right to education. 

Since then, refugees have become a convenient political scapegoat, leading to quite appalling human rights violations for refugees, and nations besmirching their reputations as their hearts & souls wither & die on a thorny bed of fear & lies. 

Despite that, people continue to flee their nations - and not only because of active war, but because of other life threatening circumstances, such as famines, natural disasters, and failed economies. 

A recent newspaper article about that is:   

• “Despite dangers, migrant flow persists between Horn of Africa and Yemen”   https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20250809-despite-dangers-migrant-flow-persists-between-horn-of-africa-and-yemen   “According to the International Organisation of Migration, the route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen is one of the busiest – and deadliest – in the world. Hoping to find work in the oil-rich Gulf states, thousands of Africans, many from Ethiopia, risk their lives on perilous sea journeys. But despite the high number of deaths each year, the route garners less media attention than other migratory flows”       

The other issues that have arisen include various forms of pushback or diversion, which my nation had a significant role in worsening - to its eternal shame (see https://externalizingasylum.info/offshore-processing-in-australia/,   https://asrc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/offshore-processing-mythbuster-2012__.pdf,   https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/law/kaldor/factsheet/offshoreprocessing.pdf,   https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/offshore-processing-facts/,   https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/15/australia-8-years-abusive-offshore-asylum-processing,   and   https://www.amnesty.org.au/unsafe-offshore-detention-facilities-mean-asylum-seekers-must-be-processed-in-australia/), and forced returns to danger. 

The situation of those forced  back into Afghanistan, especially women and girls, is devastating, but as another example, consider:   

• “Migrants returning to Venezuela face debt and harsh living conditions”   https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-deportation-migrants-maduro-trump-us-385d4a2b9b2148029b326302e4ba80c7       

IMO, much of the reason for these regressive or even reactionary changes is due, IMO, to a combination of:   

• (a) people forgetting what wars and disasters are like;   

• (b) the changes  wrought by neoliberalism;   and   

• (c) far right extremist lies and propaganda - which is currently at its worst in the USA.   

 

So ... what to do about this? 

As a first step, the 2018  Global  Compact on Refugees needs to be acknowledged. That agreement aimed to:   

• Ease the pressures on host countries;   

• Enhance refugee self-reliance;   

• Expand access to third-country solutions;   and   

• Support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity. 

Unfortunately, it is non-binding, and ran into a world that was hit by the COVID19 pandemic, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the current insanity and hate in the USA. 

However, the goals are, IMO, the right ones. 

 

Given the binding Convention and non-binding Compact, perhaps the ideal would be:  

• widespread education of people on both the Convention and the Compact; 

then  

• prompt (as close to immediate as possible) active countering of the lies - including pursuing each lie as it travels through social media - by official, academic and credible popular sources; 

• change people’s hearts and minds by:  
• educating people into seeing the value of refugees and migrants - the USA is currently showing what losing them does to jobs, the economy, lifestyle, etc, but the positive benefits (including to the humanity of the host nation) also need to be “sold” in a way that the marginalised, disenfranchised, and afraid-they’ll-lose-their-social-status will understand and relate to. See  here,  here,  here,  here,  here,  here,  and  here;    
• continuing that work until there is majority public support for ratifying the “International  Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families”.    

If that was accomplished, it would enable continued use of established systems, but on a more equitable basis ... and it would address the spiritual harm to individuals, groups, and nations caused by being a hater. 

 

However, maybe it is time for a change, a change that would be more difficult, but would ultimately address underlying problems much as wellness budgets better address societal problems than neoliberalism and neoclassical economics. 

And that change would be: 

changing the definition of refugee  

The basis of our existing definition is war - people fleeing for their and their family’s lives. 

It is a minimalist goal - it shares nothing of the global aspiration of the Sustainable  Development  Goals,   it ignores the fact that too many wars are preventable if governments operate with their genuine long term benefit in mind (which would require acknowledgement of things like the residual evil of colonialism, the ongoing evils of white supremacism/racism/misogyny/sexism/other forms of bigotry, and the need for genuine self determination),   and   it condones political skulduggery - especially by undemocratic nations. 

A definition that aligns with human, humane and equitable values such as those in the SDGs would go beyond physical survival to a reasonable quality of life. 

Technically, that is already covered under the existing definitions, but too many politicians across the world (especially authoritarian) have found it convenient to distort what is covered and build up fear and alarm that they can harness for votes. 

Because of that, I am of the view that there is a realistic argument that the battle of trying to fight for the existing definition has already been lost, and thus to gain people’s attention enough to accomplish change, a new line of argument is needed - and hence my concept of expanding the definition of refugee to include quality of life, which in turn would require wealthier nations to accept their responsibility for (a) equitable access to quality of life within their own nation, and (b) equitable access to quality of life globally (see here and here). 

Doing so would require: 

• a massive popular movement; 

• a strong commitment to this from enough insiders; or 

• a combination of both the above.  

If your nation is settled enough (the USA and UK are not - see here for that nations I consider “best”), then an email or similar to your local MP would be a good start, perhaps ... 

Doing the work of this blog on this subject would help, but this is one of those circumstances, IMO, where physical world discussions and spiritual growth as human beings is required above all else. 

 

PS - Marshall  Plan style aid to build the economies of the nations people are leaving would also be of great benefit - including to those providing the aid by building goodwill and a potential market for them ...  

PPS - this shows the depth, extent, and flawed basis of the problem:   “These protests want to 'take our country back'. But the real issues run much deeper”   https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/these-protests-want-to-take-our-country-back-but-the-real-issues-run-much-deeper/f3jcthbga   “As anti-immigration sentiment rises, experts warn misinformation and fear are fuelling division and distracting from the complex issues at hand”       

PPS - for another perspective on this, see   “Why we need a new playbook for refugee inclusion”   https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2025/08/14/why-we-need-new-playbook-refugee-inclusion   “When refugee communities define who speaks for them and institutions actually listen, we can move beyond the same ‘usual suspects’ and towards policies that reflect justice, not optics.”       

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

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