foxdemon wrote:It also shows some people are talking about more than just fleeing for one’s life when they mention refugee. They conflate economic migration and refugees.
It's not dissimilar to the conflation of illegal and legal immigrants we are seeing the US.
foxdemon wrote:Is it that the moral refugee issue is being used to legitimate a larger migration agenda? Or is it the result of mindless opposition to anything their political rivals might argue?
It's hard to argue in my view that this isn't motivated by an agenda, with polarisation appearing later partly in response.
Some of this can be explained with self selection whereby people choose different professions based on their natural inclinations and consequently end up in different strata of society. It just so happened that this led to a dominance of (often radical) left wingers in the media and other fields in many western countries. This was a post war development, with the effects starting to become noticeable in the 90s.
As an example, in Germany I'm aware of two surveys on the political orientation of journalists, one from 2006 and one from 2010, and in both the Greens come out on top among all German parties, with ~25% and ~35% respectively *. That percentage is even higher for females and the younger generation, so females entering the workforce and politics may also play a role in the transformation. In contrast, around 9% and 11% respectively consider themselves close to the CDU/CSU. See the
Bundestag election results at the time for a comparison with the general population. The Greens are outspoken left-wing radicals when it comes to immigration, refugees and asylum. Since more than half of the German public still trusts the media, they are relying on a rather skewed picture on these and various other issues. I have a hard time imagining that the numbers have improved since then; if anything, they are probably worse.
* The 2006 survey covered only political journalists and "no party" was chosen by 36% making it the top choice. The 2010 survey had a representative sample of all journalists and 23% chose "no party". (German source)Pants-of-dog wrote:
Well, during the recent refugee crisis, most people had fled war torn countries for their lives. They then ended up in refugee camps in Jordan and other local countries.
Then, the camps were overwhelmed with refugees and there were no jobs, and the wars are still going on. So some left the camps and headed to Europe in order to start over.
Are they refugees or economic migrants? Are they both?
Please note that this factual and rather humdrum explanation contradicts your claim about larger agendas or mindless opposition.
They are clearly economic migrants. If the million or so people that arrived in Germany in 2015 now set off and came to Canada requesting asylum, nobody in their right mind would consider them refugees.