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October 24, 2018

Talking and Teaching about the October Migrant Caravan

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The purpose of this collection is to encourage educators to explore the migrant caravan and the questions that it raises about migration, law, and ethics through the lens of current events and civic education. Migration is one of the most important civic issues of our time, we believe that it is essential that civic education provides an opportunity for reflective conversation about the civic challenges of the day.

This resource was posted on October 24, 2018. We will update it as the story unfolds.


Introduction:

At the end of October 2018, a caravan with over 7,000 participants is making its way from Central America towards the United States. This is the second major caravan that has caught both the President's and the Press's attention this year. Experts on Latin American migration note that people often travel in caravans for safety because the route north can be dangerous. Groups traveling in large numbers are less vulnerable to smugglers, violence, and harassment. According to press reports, about 50 percent of those on the caravan are young men, in other cases, whole families with children as young as three months are traveling together. Several reports have noted that the caravan includes LGBTQ participants fleeing persecution in their home community.

The migrant caravan that is making its way from Central America, through Mexico has become a focus of President Trump’s attention and policy suggestions. He has suggested closing the entire Southwest border. On Twitter, the President wrote, “Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.” Among the claims that the President has made is that "criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in" the people seeking asylum or to make their way to the United States. CNN's Jim Acosta pressed the President for proof, Trump acknowledged that "There’s no proof of anything but," he then added, "they could very well be."

While President Trump views the migrant caravan through the lens of security and politics, others see a human rights story. At least three different articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are directly related to migration. The text of those articles can be found below:

Article 13. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14. (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15. (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Below are a series of recent reports about the migrant caravan that you might use to start a conversation about why people migrate and the legal, moral and ethical questions that are raised by the Caravan and the way people are responding to it. Consider using these questions to frame your discussion:

  • Why do people leave their homes?
  • What do migrants experience on their journey? Why would people travel in a large caravan?
  • Why do borders exist? What is the purpose of laws regulating migration?
  • Who is responsible for people fleeing their homes?
  • How do you explain the controversy surrounding the migrant caravan?

Some students might find it useful to review language before engaging with the collection. People often use the words immigrant, immigration, migrant, migration and refugee without knowing the distinctions between them. Below are definitions with a little commentary.

Migration: To move from one country, place, or locality to another. Currently, for example, there are over 250 million people living in countries outside of where they were born. Further, millions migrate within their own borders every year.

Migrant: Simply put, a migrant is someone who has moved from their birthplace. According to the United Nations a migrant is “any person who lives temporarily or permanently in a country where he or she was not born, and has acquired some significant social ties” to this new place. Some migrants move by choice (see immigrants below).

Others have been forced to move by events that were beyond their control (see refugees below); another example is of forced migration is the involuntary migration of African slaves to the New world. Some migrants move across national borders and some move within national borders (like the Dust Bowl Migrants from Arkansas to California or the Great African American Migration from the South to North). Still others take annual cyclical patterns (like for seasonal farm work).

Immigrant: An immigrant is someone who moves to a new country with the intent live permanently. It is often implied that immigrants had some degree of choice in their (or their families) decision to move. Some immigrants are granted official Federal recognition (a variety of temporary visas; permanent residency; or citizenship) while many are in limbo or may not be granted official recognition leading to undocumented status. Within the same family, some members may be citizens and others may not.

Refugee: A refugee is someone who is forced to move to a new place (either within their own borders or to a new country) to escape danger or persecution. An increasing number of refugees are being forced to flee because of environmental disasters. In 1951, the United Nations created a convention that legally defined the word refugee and subsequent U.N. conventions elaborated on the responsibility of the international community toward refugees. Refugees may seek asylum; as they await official Federal or national recognition they are considered temporary asylum seekers.

Many people see the story of the caravans in relationship to the challenge of undocumented immigration. Despite concerns, the Los Angeles Times reports that "illegal immigration has been at historic lows the last several years." Cindy Carcamo explains:

The U.S. government gauges trends in illegal immigration by looking at the number of people who are apprehended each year trying to cross the border. That figure climbed steadily from the 1970s through the 1990s, peaking at 1.64 million in fiscal year 2000.

It has dropped sharply since then, hitting 303,916 in 2017. Based on the first 11 months of this fiscal year — the most recent data available — the annual total was on pace to rise past 390,000. That would still be lower than all but four of the previous 45 years.

Why do people leave their homes? What do migrants experience on their journey? Why would people travel in a large caravan?:

From PBS News Hour, October 23, 2018

Embed from Getty Images Collection of pictures from Getty Images

The Migrant Caravan and the Midterms, New York Times, Oct. 24, 2018

Debunking 5 Viral Images of the Migrant Caravan, New York Times, Oct. 24, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/world/americas/migrant-caravan-fake-images-news.html

The caravans that came before: The desperation of today’s migrants echoes those of yesteryear (Op-Ed), New York Daily News, Oct. 24, 2018, http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-caravans-that-came-before-20181024-story.html

Why do borders exist? What is the purpose of laws regulating migration?

Who is responsible for people on the move?


Classroom Activities:

Below is a set of classroom activities and thinking routines that can be used to deepen the discussion around the resources presented above.

We hope you find these ideas useful, follow up on facebook and twitter to keep up with Re-Imagining Migration and check our website frequently for new resources.

This post original appeared on Re-imagining Migration's website here.


Re-imagining Migration’s mission is to ensure that all young people grow up understanding migration as a fundamental characteristic of the human condition, in order to develop the knowledge, empathy and mindsets that sustain inclusive and welcoming communities. 

We live in an era of mass migration.  Young people – whether they are part of an arriving or receiving culture – strive to form their identities as learners, community members and change-makers in the context of this global phenomenon. At Re-Imagining Migration, we are catalyzing a community of educational leaders and social organizations around making migration a part of their curriculum and culture so that all students can feel supported in their social, emotional, academic, and civic growth. Join us in this important work.

Author Bio

Adam Strom is the Director of Re-Imagining Migration. The educational resources developed under Strom’s direction have been used in tens of thousands of classrooms and experienced by millions of students around the world including Stories of Identity: Religion, Migration, and Belonging in a Changing World and What Do We Do with a Difference? France and The Debate Over Headscarves in Schools, Identity, and Belonging in a Changing Great Britain, and the viewer’s guide to I Learn America. Before joining helping to found Re-Imagining Migration, Strom was the Director of Scholarship and Innovation at Facing History and Ourselves.

Re-Imagining Migration

Re-Imagining Migration'smissionis to advance the education and well-being of immigrant-origin youth, decrease bias and hatred against young people of diverse origins, and help rising generations develop the critical understanding and empathy necessary to build and sustain welcoming and inclusive com

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