"How Can I Help? I Can't Even Deal with This Anymore": What to do in the Wake of Aylan Kurdi's death

I struggled with whether to share this image:

Aylan Kurdi. This image was originally shared on facebook by 

Akıl var Fikir var

Aylan Kurdi, the boy in the picture, was 3 years old, the same age as my nephew. If Aylan were British or Danish or American -- if he were my nephew -- we'd never show his dead body like this.

And yet, I felt compelled to show the image specifically because if Aylan had been my Mikey - my beautiful, intelligent, cheeky, and curious nephew - someone would have figured out a sustainable solution by now so he didn't have to die at sea.

That was the message I put up on my facebook account, too, and it struck a chord with my parenting friends, many of whom have children Aylan's age. Amidst the many messages of people crying came a request for information from my friend Katie that was so desperate I promised immediately to develop this blog post: "What can we do, Tara? I can't even deal with this anymore. He looks the same age as my toddler. What can I do?"

Katie's question reassured me that I made the right decision in sharing Aylan's image.

The failure to appreciate the faces of refugees -- our willingness to both lump all "migrants" together and our willingness to presume that the lump of migrants are "economic migrants," "unlawful immigrants," terrorists or "benefits scroungers" -- has led to Aylan's death.

If I had directly murdered this boy -- more appropriately had David Cameron, Kristian Thulesen Dahl or Nigel Farage directly murdered this boy -- they would have had to face the reality of his limp body.  The indirectness of their culpability -- of our collective culpability -- should not excuse that obligation to understand the effects of our actions.

Katie's question sounds so desperate because we are facing a desperate situation.

I am an Economic Migrant.

The situation has been exacerbated by a desire to deny the refugee situation and rename it a "migrant crisis."

Let there be not doubt that this denial is motivated in part by fear not of economic migrants but of brown economic migrants (regardless of what their skin colour actually is). We rarely engage in the individual stories that lead refugees to flee and are instead told we are facing - in David Cameron's words - a "swarm" of people trying to "scrounge" off Europe's benevolent benefits system or abuse the US's hospitality.

The use of swarm is not an accident; it's an intentionally dehumanizing statement that distances us from them. We have a civilized culture that takes care of people; they are faceless, nameless beings that simply want to abuse that system. We welcome those who need to come; they want to abuse the situation for their own good.

But, what this narrative fails to realise is that I am an economic migrant while Aylan is not.

Thank you to The Real Art of Protest for this amazing image.

I moved to the UK for my schooling; I moved to Denmark for a job; I travel all over the world for my research, for the purpose of promoting my research, and ultimately in order to promote my own career. I could go home tomorrow and not be killed, arrested, tortured, denied, or sold into sexual slavery. But the Danish tax payers give me thousands of dollars each month to be an economic migrant because, as many taxi drivers have made clear, I'm the "right kind of immigrant."

Aylan was a refugee, having fled his home country in hopes of security.

Pretending Aylan and his parents are migrants, not refugees, is an attempt to create a false equivalency between our situations. This narrative allows Europe to pretend that we both left on our own accord, and that any difference in how Europe welcomes us stems only from my willingness to work hard and get a PhD and their desire to abuse that work.

As a result, this narrative suggests Europe and the US have no obligation to welcome the refugees, to treat them well, or to develop a sustainable policy that alleviates their situation.

That narrative is a lie -- and that lie cost Aylan his life.

The US isn't much better.

The US doesn't engage in anti-Syrian rhetoric.  That's probably because of the awfulness of ISIS, and probably because Syrians aren't actually showing up on our shores.

But, the lack of boats off the coast of North Carolina has also meant that the US hasn't really galvanized its outrage at ISIS well. The Obama administration is not responding as it should to the crisis, taking in very few Syrian refugees and mostly leaving Europe and it's inhumane rhetoric to govern international response.

So what can we do? 

To address this situation, we need two things: (1) governments to take greater responsibility in providing safe avenues to get to Europe and the US; and (2) individuals to not only pressure governments but to support the professionals who are engaged in supporting refugees.

Unfortunately, those that can most immediately act -- the EU as a whole and European states individually -- generally aren't doing so (with the noted exception of Sweden, which is getting rightfully tired of shouldering Europe's response). As a result, there's a bit of a disconnect from what I've just said to what I'm going to suggest as responses.  The suggestions below are intended to fill in the gap left by European rhetoric and lack of action.

I am bifurcating my list of things you can do into "Americans" and "Everyone." This is for two reasons: (1) I know more about the US than anywhere other than Europe and (2) I'm giving up on European leaders until they show themselves as something other than inhumane racist xenophobes.

Americans can do everything on both lists, but they are the only ones who can be effective in doing the "American" list.

Americans:

1. Know the Numbers.

You're probably wondering what we (collectively as the US) have done so far.  Can I have a drumroll?

We've resettled just over 1,000 in four years (yes, you read that right - 1,000 in four years!).  And our record isn't really set to improve.  While the White House indicates it will resettle up to 4,000 refugees over the course of 2015 and 2016, that still means we will have taken in less than 5,000 refugees in 6 years!

That's one refugee for every 63,780 Americans - 1.5 for every 100,000.  To give you a comparison, according the Economist, Sweden takes in more than 300 refugees for every 100,000 people.

Professionals engaged in refugee resettlement work estimate that the US could reasonably and sustainably resettle 65,000 refugees per year. This would put our response to Syria in line with our historical responses to refugee crises. It might sound like a lot, but it would represent less than .02% of the US population or 20 refugees for every 100,000 people.

If we don't increase our numbers to 65,000, someone should climb up on the Statue of Liberty and scratch out that "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free" (disclaimer: that was hyperbolic, not an actual encouragement to deface government property).

Also, we spend just $1,800 on each refugee. If we increased to 65,000, we would only be spending $117 million on refugee resettlement.  That sounds like a lot, but it's actually only $0.37 per American.

We can increase our response in a sustainable way that does not overly burden tax payers.


2.  Call and email the White House and ask President Obama to increase the number of Syrian refugees we resettle to 65,000 per year. 

We can support 65,000 refugees, and Congress has already authorized the President to set the number we'll take.  So we don't need a Congressional act to increase the number of Syrian refugees we'll take in (though that can always help!).  We just need the White House to act.

You can call the White House at 202-456-1111. They aren't going to write your comments verbatim, so you don't need a long statement. Simply say:

"I'm calling to ask President Obama to increase the number of Syrians we resettle to 65,000 each year. The current response is inadequate and I ask that he acts like this is the emergency it is."

You can email the White House here. Seriously, click on that link, fill in your information, and you can copy and paste the following:

Dear President Obama, 

I am writing to ask you to increase the number of Syrians the US resettles to 65,000 per year.  This is a sustainable number in line with our historical responses to refugee crises, and represents only 20 Syrian refugees per 100,000 Americans.  We have a moral obligation to act and I'm asking you to use your legal authority to do so.

Sincerely yours,

Again, President Obama won't read every email, but having these emails pile up can make a difference.

If you prefer to tweet, or wish to tweet in addition to your letter, you can tweet President Obama directly: @BarackObama Increase Syrian resettlement to 65,000 / year! We can afford it! #RememberAylanKurdi

3. Write your Senator and Congressional representative and ask for legislation that requires an increase in the number of Syrian resettlements offered and that Syrian refugee travel loans be forgiven. 

Right now, refugees who are resettled sign a promissory note agreeing to repay the US for the cost of their ticket to the US. No, I am not making this up.

So, we welcome refugees in and they are immediately in financial debt to the US.

I just did a kayak search for one-way flights from Amman, Jordan to Seattle Washington, which is probably the furthest a refugee is going to fly when traveling to the US.  Multiple airlines allow you to take that flight on less than a week's notice for less than $1500.  If we gave every refugee that airline ticket, it would cost the US less than $98 million.  Again, that's a lot, but it's less than $0.33 for each American each year, so put it together and you're not even being asked to contribute a whole $1 to resettling refugees each year.

You can find your Congressional representative here. And find your Senator by clicking here. When you get their names, call or email the following:

I'm calling/emailing to encourage the Senator/Representative to create or support legislation that would require President Obama to resettle at least 65,000 Syrian refugees each year for the duration of the crisis.  I would also like legislation that waives the travel grant for Syrian refugees so that they can resettle here debt-free. This legislation would have us resettle only 20 refugees for every 100,000 Americans, and would cost us less than $1 for each American.  We can afford this. We have a moral obligation to help, and I hope the Senator/Representative will use his legislative power to act.

4. Sign this petition on change.org. Yes, change.org is slack-tivism at its height, but at times it has made a difference. Do not let this be your only action, though.  If all you do is sign this petition, you are not doing enough. Do not let anyone fool you otherwise (there's a reason I didn't highlight this by bolding it and putting it in green).

Everyone:  

1.  Donate Money to Professionals.  Don't hop on a plane and go to Turkey unless you're trained in what to do when you land.  Similarly, volunteering to house a refugee can become difficult if you don't have the tools to support them well.  There are people who have whole books of "lessons learned" and who have been responding to refugee situations for decades.  Help them do their jobs well by giving their organisations money.  Try to establish a monthly donation of $5-30 to an organisation of your choice.  Here's a list of my favorite ones and links to their Syrian campaigns:

• UNHCR: the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees processes refugee claims, provides housing, food and medical care. 
• UNICEF: the UN International Children's Emergency Fund focuses its efforts on children, providing immunizations, education, shelter, and food.
• Church World Service: They help resettle refugees and are also lobbying Congress to do more for Syrians.
• Danish Refugee Council: Provides food, shelter, and assistance to refugees efficiently and with a long track record of successful operations. Note that the donations need to be made in Danish krone, so you have to convert your US dollars, which you can do here, or you just know that as of today $5 is about 33 krone. 
• ICRC: the International Committee of the Red Cross also provides food, shelter, and medical care to refugees.

2.  Do not give in-kind donations.  It costs more to ship them and deprives local communities of the opportunity to have their goods purchased while flooding the local market with foreign goods. As a result, in-kind donations have the potential of exacerbating tensions between migrants and local communities.

3.  Call your local leaders and tell them we need better, safer means for refugees to reach Europe. 

It may not seem like a lot, but these are productive ways you can really make a substantial contribution to helping refugees.