Refugees in Crisis

Natural Natural Hazards Observer Volume XL • Number 3 February 2016 Refugees in Crisis Why Labels Matter in A Counter Narrative of the Dispatches from a Calais Muslim Americans, Bigotry, Human Migration Refugee Crisis Refugee Camp and the Enduring Backlash By Jolie Breeden Magdalena Schwarz & Elke Weesjes By Elise Sandri By Lori Peek & Elke Weesjes The mission of the Natural Hazards Center is to ad- vance and communicate knowledge on hazards mitigation and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Using an all-hazards and interdisciplinary framework, the Cen- Contents ter fosters information sharing and integration of activities among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from around the world; supports and conducts research; and provides educational opportunities for the next generation of hazards scholars and professionals. The Natural Haz- From the Editor......................................................3 ards Center is funded through a National Science Founda- tion grant and supplemented by contributions from a con- One Size Won’t Fit All..........................................4 sortium of federal agencies and nonprofit organizations Why Labels Matter in Human Migration dedicated to reducing vulnerability to disasters. By Jolie Breeden Staff Timeline Refugee Crisis ........................................6 By: Elke Weesjes Jolie Breeden..............................................Program Associate Nnenia Campbell......................................Research Assistant Faces Behind Figures...........................................10 Jeffrey Gunderson..........................................Web Developer A Counter Narrative of the Refugee Crisis RoseMarie Perez Foster...............Senior Research Associate By Magdalena Schwarz and Elke Weesjes Wanda Headley............................................Library Manager Liesel A. Ritchie..............................................Associate Director Welcome to the Jungle.........................................18 Kathleen Tierney.................................................................Director Dispatches from a Calais Refugee Camp Jamie Vickery ..................................................Research Assistant By Elisa Sandri Courtney Welton-Mitchell ........................Research Associate Jason Van Horn...............................................Program Manager Are Muslims the New Jews?..............................22 Elke Weesjes..............................................................................Editor The 1930s Refugee Crisis Revisited By Elke Weesjes Research Affiliates Still Under Attack................................................28 Dennis S. Mileti..........................................Director Emeritus Muslim Americans, Bigotry, and the Enduring Lori Peek....................................... Colorado State University Backlash Deborah Thomas.............University of Colorado at Denver By Lori Peek and Elke Weesjes Observer cartoons are drawn by Rob Pudim. Conferences and Training..................................33 Contracts and Grants...........................................34 Announcements...................................................35 On the Cover Two Muslim women hug after arriving on the Greek Island of Lesvos. For the first time since the start of the refugee crisis, there are more children and women on the move than adult males. Today, children and women now make up nearly 60 percent of refugees according to UNICEF. November 14, 2015 © Fotomovimiento 2 Natural Hazards Observer • February 2016 From the Editor •••• WelCOme to the February issue of the Observer. region will continue to get dryer with rising carbon emis- This month we focus on the ongoing and rapidly escalat- sions (Tierney, Ummenhofer and deMenocal, 2015). ing refugee crisis. This incredibly complex issue is no lon- Climate-induced natural disasters haven’t only triggered ger—and never really was—a Middle Eastern or a Euro- the current refugee crisis; they also plague those in refugee pean problem. It is a global crisis that concerns everyone, camps and on their way to safer destinations. Last August, especially those who work in the disaster field. After all, temperatures in Jordan and Iraq reached record-breaking crises such as civil conflicts, natural disasters, and climate highs. The heat wave brought even harsher conditions to change overlap and don’t recognize national boundaries. the nearly one million Syrians and internally displaced The interconnected nature of these three issues is espe- Iraqis who live in basic tents in refugee camps in Jordan cially visible in the Fertile Crescent and Horn of Africa, the and Iraq. two regions that have generated the majority of refugees In September, a heat wave hit Lesvos, the Greek Island currently seeking asylum in Europe. that saw the arrival of half a million refugees in 2015 alone. In Syria, the immediate cause of the conflict, which be- Overwhelmed island authorities have consistently lacked gan in 2011 and eventually spilled into neighboring coun- the manpower and resources—such a water, food, and tries, was a regime change, however, religious, sociopo- medicine—to respond adequately to the needs of such litical, and environmental factors also served as a trigger. large numbers. The extreme temperatures in the summer For instance, a devastating 2006 drought that affected the of 2015 added insult to injury and, consequently, many Fertile Crescent and lasted for five years was a driver of refugees suffered from heat strokes, dehydration, and heat civil unrest in Syria. Affecting 60 percent of the country, exhaustion. it caused widespread famine and water scarcity, gave rise Winter weather and cold temperatures have had an to increased unemployment, and forced about 1.5 mil- equally devastating effect on refugees, especially on those lion people to move from Syrian farming regions to urban who live in makeshift encampments in Lebanon, Syria, centers where, in 2011, the revolution was fought hardest. and Jordan, but also in Northern France. Additionally, The extensive loss of livelihood created a fertile ground for winter storms at sea have made the already perilous jour- civil unrest, observed Aaron Wolf, an Oregon State Uni- ney to Europe even more dangerous. Despite the dangers versity water management expert who frequently visits and hardships of this journey, deteriorating living condi- the Middle East. tions in refugee camps in Syria and neighboring countries “You had a lot of angry, unemployed men helping to continues to push men, women, and children to make this trigger a revolution,” Wolf told Smithsonian. trip. In January alone, 244 people have died at sea. As with most recent droughts, the 2006-2011 Fertile Despite such strong connections between climate, war, Crescent Drought was intensified by climate change, ac- and other hazards, it’s unfortunate that more U.S.-based cording to a study published in Proceedings of the National disaster researchers have not lent their voice to the dis- Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Kelley et cussion of the refugee crisis. Unlike Europe, U.S. disaster al 2014). Due to global warming, temperatures have risen researchers and emergency practitioners have a chance to and soil in the region—once known as the land of milk get ahead of the coming storm—that’s one of the reasons and honey—has gotten dryer, wrote Colin P. Kelley, a re- why we put together this issue of the Observer. searcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Contributors examine the challenges refugees face from lead author of the study. a number of different angles and discuss shortcomings Because of this lack of moisture, the drought was hot- and successes in local and national responses to the cri- ter and therefore drier. Its impact on agriculture was di- sis. Rather than focusing on the refugee crisis in general sastrous, especially in Syria. By 2011, more than one mil- terms, articles shine a light on the experiences of refugees lion Syrians were without sufficient food. After first being who are in crisis. By doing so, readers are encouraged to internally displaced by the drought, many Syrians from pause and realize that refugees are not just numbers, they rural areas have since left the country, joining millions of are human beings who happen to be in the wrong place their countrymen who were forced to flee the brutal civil at the wrong time. They deserve a better future, just like conflict that has raged for five years. everybody else. Similarly, in the Horn of Africa another drought had equally devastating consequences. This yearlong drought, Elke Weesjes Editor which began in 2011, came on top of successive poor rains and rising inflation. It had a huge impact on crop and Kelley, Colin P., et al 2014. “Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and livestock production, food prices, and water availability. implications of the recent Syrian drought” PNAS vol. 112 n. 11 http:// The situation was further compounded by armed conflict www.pnas.org/content/112/11/3241.abstract (accessed on February 11, across the region. The future of the Horn of Africa is also 2015). Tierney, Jessica E., Caroline C. Ummenhofer and Peter B. de Menocal. bleak, according to a new study by researchers at the Cen- 2015. “Past and future rainfall in the Horn of Africa” Science Advances, ter for Climate and Life at Columbia University’s Lamont- Vol.1 No. 9. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/9/e1500682 (ac- Doherty Earth Observatory. That study found

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