Doing Global Ethics

Fresco, Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico DF - Mexico

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

Doing Global Ethics

The case of international migration

 

Think about an issue within global ethics: this can be one that has been raised already in the course or another one that you are aware of. What do you think are the ethical considerations in your chosen case? What is right or wrong about what is happening in your chosen case? The Open University (2020b)

         International migration, which like a serpent coils around the whole world, “is estimated to be almost 272 million globally” (International Organization for Migration, 2019). Nearly two-thirds are labor migrants (International Organization for Migration, 2019), who will probably go back to their home countries as soon as their work is over. But there are, based on the statistics provided by the IOM, 96.67 million individuals who migrate to permanently move away from their motherlands due to a full gamut of reasons to escape from social, economic, and climatic conditions.

         From a mere empirical standpoint, “it can be stated that it is wrong that [migrant] people suffer when others could help but fail to do so” (The Open University, 2020a). At last the IOM’s statistics has drawn migration’s secret, and now it can be better understood that governments will not thin the numbers out. International migration, as a global ethics problem, is “closely connected to acute events (such as severe instability, economic crisis or conflict) as well as long-term trends (such as demographic change, economic development, communications technology advances and transportation access)” (International Organization for Migration, 2019). Empiricism, e.g., is telling us the experiences of Venezuelans who are running away because of severe political instability and due to their home country’s economic crisis, of Syrians who find themselves moving away their homeland because of conflict, and so on. While most of us huddle close to our loved ones, these people find themselves struggling with their lives.

         From a mere attempt to construct a model of how the world works, national governments and the UN have failed to help these 96.67 million migrants who moved away from their homelands to other countries. If Hondurans, e.g., decide to walk from their country all the way to Tijuana in Mexico to have a chance to be admitted as refugees in the United States, this fact is telling us how the Honduran government and its economy, and probably the UN, have failed to aid all these people with decent job opportunities to support their families. Another example here is to question what seems to be wrong with the Afghan political structures that have forced nearly 2.7 million people to move away. “Pakistan hosts nearly 1.4 million, including some second- or third-generation Afghan refugees who have never lived in their home country” (Reid, 2020). Since the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979, Afghanistan and the UN have not provided these people a solution to a problem that has been there for 40 years. Being rather pessimistic, it would be much easier to find the Last Supper’s goblet than to give migrants a chance to stay in their homelands and to live a happy life next to theirs.

         From a normative point of view, who are the individuals who should be doing something to stop global migration and provide them with a quality life? It looks like migration has not been addressed properly when you just get to see barren efforts by international organizations and the lack of interest in nations whose citizens are just moving away. Their countries can be seething with life, but that life is snatched to the last bit by just a handful of individuals. It cannot be denied that UNHCR has established “a comprehensive and coherent approach in the overall institutional response to international migration” (UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency, 2006), but more than 96 million people will migrate this very year for many reasons that will not be taken care of after great efforts. In short, “huge inequalities between people across the world, in terms of resources or relations of power, are a bad thing, and wrong” (The Open University, 2020a), and the UN will not stop it that easily especially when states are not interested. Here we have one of the horsemen of the apocalypse taking his eight-footed steed to continue spreading despair among migrants and their families.

         Global migration is a global ethics problem. “The estimate number and proportion of international migrants already surpasses some projections made for the year 2050, which were in the order of 2.6 per cent or 230 million” (International Organization for Migration, 2019). This statistical fact simply is showing us that international migration is something that has gone out of control. Millions of individuals, at a world scale, are and continue suffering because of their need to run away from their home countries. The UN has the fact and figures of migration; the theory and construction of models about how the world works are known by national governments and international institutions dealing with this global issue, but not much will be done to stop these people from suffering. Normatively speaking, nations and international agencies know what needs to be done; they know they ought to do something, but not much can be achieved when there is no will among national and international stakeholders.

References

International Organization for Migration. (2019). World Migration Reprot 2020. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration. Retrieved November 1, 2020, from https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf

Reid, K. (2020, June 19). Forced to flee: Top countries refugees are coming from. Retrieved November 1, 2020, from WorldVision.Org: https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/forced-to-flee-top-countries-refugees-coming-from

The Open University. (2020a). The global ethical standpoint. Retrieved November 1, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905602

The Open University. (2020b). Doing Global Ethics. Recuperado el 29 de October de 2020, de FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905601

UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency. (2006, September 1). Global Migration Group. Retrieved November 1, 2020, from UNHCR.Org: https://www.unhcr.org/global-migration-group.html

 

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