A valuable lesson for the Government
Why are the Ukrainian Refugees still coming here? Did they not hear, there are no homes for them?
A valuable lesson for our rulers: Push Factors
“Hundreds of refugees arriving in Ireland despite warnings over accommodation crisis” – reports the IT.
“A further 1,200 Ukrainian refugees arrived in the State last week as warnings about an acute accommodation shortage failed to deter people seeking to flee after the Russian invasion.”, the report continued.
The buzz word of the last 10 years was “pull factors“.
We were told that pull factors must be removed in order to stop the refugee flows from the Mediterranean.
Pull Factors, as the EU leaders saw, included,
- Search and rescue operations at sea
- Allowing safe passage through the Schengen Zone
- Providing refugees a home
- Right to work and social protection
But somehow, the refugees kept coming. Damn! Even the deaths at sea did not stop them.
Where did it all go wrong?
“Pull factors” was a phrase to hide the realities of the people fleeing and push the debate towards “illegal migrant“, rather than “people fleeing horrors“.
It was an attempt, not to talk about the “push factors“, which by any measure were far more powerful than the absence of “pull factors“.
“Pull factors” was also a propaganda tool:
- That Europe was too nice to migrants
- That these people crossing our borders were opportunistic gangs trying to benefit from the life in Europe
- That Europe was a victim of it’s own goodwill and surely, anything that attracts illegal immigration due to “pull factors” had to be stopped.
“Pull Factors” was the white washing of European Border Barbarism.
Our Government is trying hard. We must give it to them. They are stuck but trying hard not to close the border to Ukrainian refugees and accommodate those that arrive. But they are also hoping that the housing crisis will deter Ukrainians from coming here.
But the Ukrainian refugees are not listening… Despite having no “pull factors”, such as housing.
Here is the lesson for the Irish Government and all others:
What triggers refugee flows and what makes people to go anywhere are the existence of “push factors”, not the absence of “pull factors”.
What drives the Refugees is and has always been the dangers at home, matters of life and death, not the uncertainties at the destination. For refugees, first comes the escape from the horror. Not a calculation of what benefits are there in the host country.
Tens of thousands of black-brown, Middle Eastern, African refugees who flew from Western bombs in Syria, US/UK Manufactured bombs dropped by Saudis in Yemen, to name a couple; people from all sorts of unimaginable chaos in some parts of the world were let to die at sea while the EU leaders talked about cancelling the “pull factors”.
A policy they could not implement against the Ukrainian refugees. Wouldn’t go down well.
So, here it is… Pull factors and push factors…
