It has been four years since the Josefa House opened its doors. It has been seven years since the Josefa project started. What about the unrest around "migration"?
Migration...: in Belgium, this does not mean the same thing as in Greece, Turkey and any other place in the world. Migration does not mean the same thing for a minister, for a policeman, for a closed centre agent, for an activist, for a volunteer at a citizens’ platform. Neither does it mean the same thing for the person who is "benefitting" from each of these "services".
This is a situation that has evolved in a conservative and increasingly militarized way. The ingredients? Some fuzzy considerations, a ladle of good intentions, a triple dose of marketing, five or six biased (but supposedly objective) analyses... It is a recipe that works (it’s been tested and approved) on migratory flows. It feeds into the extreme right’s philosophy as well as that of the extreme left and NGOs. To this, the human urgency of exile situations adds a good dose of necessity. The latter is all the more glaring when a person does not belong to the "right" social class. On this fertile ground, it becomes easy to transform a fundamental movement into a crisis to be managed. A crisis which, with supporting numbers, is no more than a question of definition. It is therefore a political consensus, aiming to define limits, quotas, euros.
At the macro level, the structural causes are quite clear. These include military, extractivist and industrial capitalism, a social structuring into classes and the nation-state. Especially since the latter maintains the structures by "legitimate" and "proportionate" force. One cannot expect any improvement in the situation, as long as this system is the driving force of "development". As shown by the European approaches that give money to countries, especially in Africa, so that they retain people who want to leave or who are in transit.
It is more than ever necessary to undertake a radical approach which envisions the suppression of the State as the source of public authority, the suppression of the justice of the dominant to decide and, in a general way, which aims at the elimination of all oppressions. It is necessary to fundamentally change economic models and for donations-for-donations to replace currencies. Without this, urgency cannot give way to another society, based on an unconditional solidarity, ignoring alienating categories and classes. The social classes and the resulting oppressions are now well hidden in public discourse. Indeed, in all the "crises" created by the capitalism–nation-state pair, reformist positions are acclaimed, put forward by the media that are held by a handful of wealthy individuals, whether in the "management of migrants", for ecology, against unemployment or in the management of the economic crisis. The solutions that come out of this system, with their share of funding schemes, do not solve the emergency any more than the substance of the problem; they even maintain it by virtue of their own existence. Just look at where the funding comes from when it is private. As for public funds, look at the arms companies, the barbed wire, the secure prisons, the closed centres, Frontex and Libya, and this will just give you a foretaste. Besides, it is a recognized fact that with the right marketing strategy, even "shit" can be sold.
At the micro level, volunteers come to solve the emergency and then leave with hearts full of human kindness, compassion, crazy and exhilarating images. At best, they will have come across "good practices". However, since they do not have the means individually to tackle the causes, it is likely that they have only contributed to perpetuate the system alongside the traditional actors.
In this context, a displacement, a move, an exile become secondary: an attached element, uprooted from its human sense, its social sense, its economic sense, its political sense... Give them a name, and they will be people; give them a number and these are just statistics.
For "us", "migration, why?" Because it yields billions to the wealthy social classes and helps to maintain what they call "social peace".
For "them", "migration, why?" It would be interesting to ask them. Ask, but in which system? Therefore, how can you not make a figure and a showcase of it for charity purposes?
And for "me", "migration, why?" A very long question... Have I even dared ask myself?
When can we expect an organized approach from social movements, an approach that would be common to various crises, radical and without reformist arrangements? In other words, without indulging in the program of the "powerful" because it is past time to "decolonize our world".
Guillaume
