As the original texts are written in Turkish, English translation is provided for non-Turkish readers. The author apologizes in advance for any and all possible changes and losses in meaning due to translation.
We’ve already completed the first quarter of 2016. The number of tragedies globally has come to pushing the limits of our memory. Not only that we forget, we also find it difficult to remember many catastrophes that terrified us, not a long time ago, but just in the last few months. We have difficulty in understanding the connections between the incidents and we cannot see the big picture.
Deaths of people and tragedies of survivors have been the events that struck me the most over the past year. The images of the refugee flow, drowning families and children are on my mind. And we are witnessing a new wave of migration. Migration is both old and new to us and we have complicated feelings about what is going on. Sometimes we are worried about the great number of foreigners in need of help. From time to time, different parts of the society ask: “Don’t we have enough problems already?”
In fact, migration is not new to the Turkish people. It would not be wrong to say that every family in this country has a story of migration, one way or another. In fact, migration has been happening since the beginning of time. Humans have always migrated from dangerous and deprived regions and tried to reach the regions where they thought they could live well and safe. This has sometimes resulted in forcing other people to migrate. Today’s societies have emerged as a result of continental and intercontinental migration movements.
People who assigned American genetic company “23andMe” to “study their ethnic origins” have been quite stunned when they learnt that their prehistoric family components emerged in very far geographies of the world. The “Melting Pot” in the North America has become an idiom in the light of recent historic findings. Seeking a better life, approximately 50 million immigrants arrived in the so-called Melting Pot between 1820 and 1979.
The reasons for migration can differ. People migrate due to religious issues, by force, financial problems, or simply safety concerns. It may either be by force and religion-based such as the migration of 150 thousand Jews from Spain after the Alhambra Decree between Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon; by force and racism-based such as the migration of 12 million African people who were taken to the USA and enslaved between the 16th and 19th centuries; or economic-based such as the migration of Turks to Germany in 1960s to build their future.
Either in masses or individually, within a long period of time or suddenly, peacefully or by force… The way a migration emerges depends on historic conditions. There is only one thing that the history of migration clearly teaches us: Cultural, linguistic, and economic boundaries, whether protected by supreme military forces or walls, are only ‘snapshots’ in the history, i.e. in the long term. Within the framework of philosophy of history, we can make comprehensive predictions about how long it will take this ‘snapshot’ to change. However, what happened last summer alone reveal that the snapshot may change very quickly in a quite dramatic, even in a tragic way.
Our ancestors had to migrate due to several reasons. We were immigrants. Our children may still be immigrants in the future. Therefore, when we see refugees who seek a home today, our fears should not stifle our compassion. In the context of “humanity” we are all relatives and connected to each other in some ways. We should always remember that the common fate and true affinity of people are identified by the sequence of events throughout our lives and our reactions to these events. If we see the issue of compulsory migration from this perspective, it will be much easier to act without overlooking the real and the big picture.
References:
- Wikipedia
- European Emigration (the GENERATIONS Network, INC.)
- History of Migration (History World)
- Migrationpolicy.org (A History of Migration)
- Cicero Magazine on emigration
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