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CW: war, displacement

The effect of the conflict in Ukraine on its surrounding countries has been unprecedented. A refugee crisis has unfolded on an enormous scale. In this article I will focus on Romania, a country with historic ties to Ukraine, and one whose response to the unfolding crisis has outdone expectations with an astonishing display of generosity. It has proven to be a lifeline in ensuring those on the frontline of the crisis have the funds to continue their work.

For this article, I interviewed Florin Misiuc, a Romanian engineer, who now lives and works in Hertfordshire. His hometown of Gura-Humorului is located in a northern Romanian county called Suceava, which borders Ukraine. The neighbouring town, Siret, is a crossing point with Ukraine, and many stories have been shared with him of the events there.

I begin by asking him what the initial reactions were to the outbreak of the invasion and ensuing refugee crisis. He says that people were surprised but not shocked; that none of us have been through this situation and we just dont know how to behave. Youre trying to stay sane and rational, but you cant stop asking yourself questions of where this is going to end or how it is going to unfold. He adds that I think people were expecting the refugees, but it was a surprise to see how sympathetic locals were there, particularly given that we dont see many foreigners here. There might be some Ukrainian traders but not big waves of immigrants.

Romanians came together to meet the crisis head-on. Florin has never seen such a massive mobilisation to a migrant cause in Romania, and indeed there has never been a comparable event. It was just amazing to see people from all sorts of backgrounds and various trades come together, he says. Churches of all factions put differences aside to help organise the response and to buy and supply toiletries and nappies. Since the Ukrainian government declared martial law, the refugees coming from Ukraine are now mainly women and children; men aged 18-60 have been prevented from leaving the country and instead conscripted to join the resistance movement.

Florin tells me that Romanians collected Ukrainians from the border and provided accommodation and food no questions asked. Even at the onset of the crisis, they did not ask for money even though a lot of Ukrainians wanted to pay and had money. Since limits on cash withdrawals have been imposed on Ukrainians, Romanian generosity has been vital in avoiding a humanitarian crisis. The daily withdrawal limit is nearly nothing in Romanian currency and so worth even less in Europe, meaning that people are stuck there and cant move on.

He tells me about a woman with five children, aged two months to 14 years old, who fled Ukraine to Romania. The rest of her family headed to Warsaw in Poland. The limit on cash withdrawals was not enough for her to pay for transport or food or communication. Its just heart-breaking thinking that they [her family] dont know about each other, Florin says; all they know is that some of them took the path to Warsaw and some took the path south to Romania. She is now trying to find other people wanting to go to Warsaw so that they can hire a coach or bus together. Without Romanian generosity, her situation would be substantially more desperate.

Local businesses have given their services and helped however they could. Many transport companies offered to take Ukrainians to airports. Florin has heard of people driving from Bucharest, 300 miles to the north, to collect Ukrainians and drop them off at airports in Bucharest. These extraordinary levels of solidarity are not what you see day by day, Florin comments. So far, it is mainly people who are in a better financial position the ones with cars who could travel quickly who have made it to Romania. Most of this first wave are hoping to travel westwards and seek refuge in other countries where they have relatives or friends. There are likely to be further waves of refugees, depending on how the situation unfolds.

Romanian communities abroad have played a key role in funding the relief effort. I ask Florin to tell me a bit more about how he personally has been involved. He tells me about a friend whose extended family owns tourist chalets in their hometown, Gura-Humorului. Since the crisis began, they have swapped tourists for 60 Ukrainian refugees. The familys resources are limited, and so they sought help from those abroad. Florins friend works in London and explained the situation to his mainly British colleagues in the office, who all felt sympathetic and put in whatever they could. Florin, too, provided money and asked his colleagues and friends for help. Florins generosity is humbling: You might think its cheap to buy food, but its not, and its not only food; there are young children there, so you need nappies, toiletries and more. He tells me that weve managed to raise about a thousand pounds in 48 hours, which will feed those women and children for a few days.

I ask if the power of social media has been important. Absolutely is his response. This is the first major European conflict which has been fought in the social media age. The management of the crisis has been made more effective as a result. Romanian communities across Europe can coordinate the donation and transport logistics of essential goods through online platforms like Facebook groups, where requests from those in need can also be made. Florin reports that after one request, a lot of people brought water and sandwiches to help the refugees at one point there was just too much food there..

Social media has also brought the conflict much closer to all Romanians regardless of geographical location and made it feel more real. Individual stories arent that touching, but when you open social media, you are instantly flooded with countless stories it hits different, Florin says. Florin is also a part-time DJ, and is in contact with numerous Ukrainian musicians who are constantly giving updates on their situation: They treat each message as if its their last one. There is a lot of hate towards Putin. They just dont understand why this is happening.

I ask Florin if he thinks the Romanian generosity being expressed stems from a sense of shared history, or mainly from pure sympathy. He agrees that there is an element of common culture; the southern side of Ukraine was part of Romania until it was lost during the Second World War to the Russians, and many ethnic Romanians still live on the Ukrainian side of the border. However, with the Ukrainians from Kyiv now reaching the border, the cultural tie is far weaker. Despite this, Florin thinks hard times generally bring people together, especially given geographical proximity: The wars in the Middle East and elsewhere never felt that threatening, but now its just around the corner.

The stoicism of the Ukrainian defence has been admirable and has drawn respect from Romanians. I think no-one expected Ukraine to resist that much, Florin admits. Ukrainians are conscious that on their own they dont have the military capabilities to defeat an army like Russias, but morale is still high and is being boosted by crucial external support. A story spung to Florins mind about two of the first families that arrived at the chalets in the first days of conflict, when men were still allowed to leave Ukraine. The men said at some point that they will make sure their families get safely to Spain where they have some friends and then they will return back to fight. And I thought that is just absolutely brave.

I ask Florin whether he thinks that the images that have been shared by the people he follows on social media present a different narrative to that of mainstream media. He replies, Generally not, but of course it depends on what media you tend to follow. There is lots of misinformation. I have learnt to take everything with a pinch of salt. Both Russians and Ukrainians have war propaganda to motivate their troops and that isnt informational. Social media misinformation is present in Romania and has intensified since the invasion with trolls commenting on nearly every post. I ask if this has the capacity to stir unrest in Romania, but Florin is confident that few Romanians will fall into the trap of misinformation given the historic relations between the countries. Romanians harbour a general distrust and dislike of Russia because of their experiences during and after the Second World War.

Are people fearful for the future? Florin is upbeat, as, while opinions are split, the population is generally not frightened, and trusts the NATO alliance and the EU: There is big support for the European community. There has also been a collective realisation of the importance of joining NATO, because otherwise we would have been in the situation of the Republic of Moldova, which does not belong to a military alliance; they are quite frightened at the moment because they dont enjoy the protection we have. Florin concedes that of course, there are concerns economically,, but affirms that people are generally not afraid of hot war on Romanian territory.

However, there was a lot of concern last Thursday (24th February) about increased jet activity in Romanian skies. This was in response to Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty being invoked by Romania together with Poland, the Baltics and Hungary, which convened NATOs main decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council. The invocation of this collective defence article, which is triggered when one or more of NATOs member states consider their territorial integrity, political independence or security to be threatened, reinforced the operations of the NATO airpolice. Despite this activity being intended to ensure the safety of NATO members, Florin says that for those on the ground there is a lot of noise which is a bit frightening, and when you dont know whats happening and nothing is displayed on flight radar, it is really concerning..

Over the coming days, weeks, and months, Romania is expecting many more refugees, as indeed are many other Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. The European Commissions aid packages will be important to ensure that these countries can cope with the pressures they will face; Florin notes that the Romanian capacity to help is limited due to its finite ability to accommodate the enormous number of refugees. From the accounts Florin has received, it seems that the Ukrainian refugees are conscious of their compatriots on the trail behind them and want to move on quickly. It is difficult to predict what will happen next and when this tragedy will end; we can only hope that peace and justice will come swiftly to Ukraine and that its people can safely return to their land.

Image Credit: Public Domain

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"Now it's just around the corner": Impacts of the Russo-Ukrainian crisis in Romania - Cherwell Online

How the world's largest investors fuel and profit from climate change and border militarization

Download the full brief here.

Download the Infographic here.

With trillions of dollars under management, institutional investors play a pivotal role in enabling the climate crisis by financing fossil fuels and industrial agricultural commodities. These industries and their value chains are responsible for increasing greenhouse gas emissions, widespread environmental destruction, and gross human rights abuses. Increasingly, activists, shareholder advocates, and policymakers are seeking to stop the pipeline of money flowing to the companies and industries most responsible for the climate crisis. The role of large asset managers such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street in bankrolling the climate emergency has rightly made them targets of aggressive campaigns demanding they divest from fossil fuels, defund deforestation, and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Investing directly in the companies responsible for the climate crisis is not the only way large asset managers are fueling global instability. BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and many other financial giants also facilitate human rights violations through their support of the border and surveillance industry (BSI). This industry is in the business of separating families, eroding civil liberties, and promoting systemic racism and ethnonationalism around the world. BSI companies provide the hardware, software and services to enable the containment, exclusion, surveillance, transportation and detention of migrant populations. This includes companies that operate private prisons and migrant detention centers and develop the surveillance technology and biometric systems used to facilitate detentions, deportations, racial profiling, border militarization, and criminalization of migrants.

In a warming world subject to increasing natural disasters and extreme weather events, migration is a form of climate adaptation. People embark on dangerous journeys to seek safety, security, and dignity in the face of environmental, economic, and political upheaval. In response, governments should ensure safe pathways for migration.

Yet, as climate change is increasingly being framed as a national and international security threat, militarized responses to migration through the proliferation of [walls], bullets, drones and cages are presented as essential to eliminating this threat.

This brief illustrates how BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are financing the climate crisis through investments in fossil fuel and agribusiness companies, which drives displacement, and then profit from racist and xenophobic responses to migration through investments in BSI companies. It discusses these asset managers failure to adopt effective human rights policies that would ensure their investments are not enabling human rights violations and are aligned with international frameworks, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. It calls on governments, investors, and climate movements particularly the Global North climate movement to embrace an intersectional, rights-based approach rooted in principles of climate justice when engaging in efforts to transform financial institutions.

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Cashing in on Crisis - Transnational Institute

TALLAHASSEE Florida Republicans are poised to bar the state from doing business with companies that bring undocumented immigrants into the state, a move that Democrats and faith leaders across the state worry will complicate the resettlement of unaccompanied minors who come to Florida to be reunified with their families.

The proposal approved by the Senate on Thursday along party lines seeks to cramp the flow of undocumented immigrants into the state by targeting companies that transport people who are unlawfully in the country into Florida. Unaccompanied migrant children, who under federal immigration law have no lawful immigration status, would be included, according to immigration attorneys.

We are making decisions in a state that are going to affect a lot of people, including unaccompanied children, said Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami. We should not be passing a bill that is going to create more division, more hate and create two types of children, those who are accepted and those who are not.

Republican lawmakers tried to quell concerns that the proposal would have an impact on children by narrowing the definition of who would be considered an unauthorized alien under state law. The change came after the issue drew criticism from Miami faith leaders and created division among Cubans who came to Florida through Operation Pedro Pan in the 1960s.

Sen. Aaron Bean, a Fernandina Beach Republican sponsoring the bill, admitted he had a really hard time defending the bill when he first presented it at the start of the 60-day legislative session.

It had a very poor definition of who was here lawfully and who the bill applied to, he told senators on Wednesday night. So, we went back to the drawing board and pulled out a new definition.

Now, he said Thursday, the bill is simple.

We used the federal definition of lawful and unlawful. So whatever example that anybody can come up with, it comes down to: Are they here lawfully or are they here unlawfully? Bean said.

The new definition would still apply to unaccompanied minors, immigration attorneys say. What remains unclear is whether any company would stop transporting them into Florida.

It is not known how many state or local government agencies in Florida have existing contracts with companies that have agreements with the federal government, or whether they would end their contracts with the federal government out of fear of losing a state contract.

The bill does not prohibit companies from transporting undocumented immigrants into Florida, said state Rep. John Snyder, R-Stuart, the sponsor of the bill in the House.

I want to be very clear on something with this bill. As a state, there are certain things we can and cannot do, Snyder said last month. Nothing in this bill prohibits a common carrier from transporting any human being regardless of their immigration status. Quite frankly, I wish we could. But we cant.

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Yet Bean told senators on Thursday night that the bill is attempting to do something.

Florida right now is challenged by soaring numbers of unlawful aliens and we have to do something, he said.

In practice, the proposal is largely designed to send a message to Biden that Florida is taking a stand against the crisis Republicans say his immigration policies have created at the southern border.

Nobody wants to be here, Bean said. I wish that we didnt have to do the bill. I wish the federal government would step up to the plate and protect our border. That is why we are here. To send a message, and we are hoping the message will be delivered should we pass this bill.

If approved, the proposal would bar the state from doing business with any company, person or firm that transports a person into Florida knowing that the person is an unauthorized alien, unless they are doing so to help with deportations or sending them to a federal immigration detention facility.

Senate Democrats slammed Republicans in the chamber for pushing a bill solely for political reasons. They criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis for misleading the public about so-called secret flights to push for legislation on Fox News in an election year.

DeSantis has talked about those flights on Fox News prime-time shows repeatedly. Before the Legislature drafted the measure, DeSantis went on Fox News host Tucker Carlsons show last November to vow that Florida would fight back against contractors that help the federal government transport migrants into the state.

Its something that was said on Fox News one night and someone had to draft something that you guys now gotta swallow, said Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami.

Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, characterized the Republican effort as a boogeyman bill that does nothing.

Some Republican senators defended the proposal by saying it is about transparency and law and order.

The bill, for example, would not allow local authorities to enact policies and procedures that would prohibit them from sharing information with state agencies about the immigration status of people in their custody.

What this bill does is asking the federal government for transparency and accountability, said Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami.

The proposed legislation would also expand the scope of a 2019 law that barred sanctuary cities in the state, after a federal judge in Miami ruled portions of the law were unconstitutional and discriminatory.

We know that a federal court ruled that bill unconstitutional because of its discriminatory motives that rely on an immigrant threat narrative. I dont know why we are addressing something here that has already been ruled unconstitutional, said Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach.

All Florida law enforcement agencies operating county detention facilities would need to enroll in a federal immigration program, known as 27(g), which trains and authorizes county-level officers to perform limited functions of federal immigration authorities.

In the hours leading up to the Senate vote, immigration advocates gathered near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Plantation to demand the closure of Glades County Detention Center, which has been the target of complaints from immigration advocates and watchdog groups.

They advocated to free them all and defund hate. When asked about Republican lawmakers proposals in the Legislature, some said they were not surprised by it and that it continued feeding into this narrative of further demonizing the act of migration into the U.S.

To continue and add on and build this relationship between ICE and law enforcement is outrageous, said Guadalupe de la Cruz, the director of the American Friends Service Committee in Florida. We dont want that type of relationship to be established and reinforced and backed up by Florida.

Paula Muoz, director of campaigns of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said her organization is very disappointed with the outcome of the legislation in Tallahassee.

We know its a law that is going to hurt many immigrant communities, she said. Its attacking children, asylum seekers. Its a law we do not need, and we have seen these kinds of laws create fear and insecurity in immigrants and it should not be the focus or priority of the governor or of legislators who are pushing for it.

Immigration advocacy groups have mobilized scores of protesters to Tallahassee, where they have prayed for DeSantis and legislators to change their minds, and held press conferences to raise awareness of the impact the governors immigration platform would have on their services.

Faith leaders are not just worried about the bill. They are also monitoring a controversial rule from DeSantis administration that directs state child care regulators to deny licenses to shelters, foster agencies and foster homes that care for unaccompanied migrant children on behalf of the federal government, unless Florida reaches a resettlement agreement with the feds.

The rule would require service providers to conduct twice-a-year welfare checks on children they place with sponsors until they reach the age of 18. The required in-person visits to comply with the state rule could rack up millions of dollars in additional costs, according to a cost analysis from the Florida Department of Children and Families.

This policy, if passed, in partnership with the governors executive order and (the Department of Children and Families) rulemaking that they have just published, will have the effect of blocking faith-based groups and other organizations from providing shelter to vulnerable children, said state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, in debate last month.

Miami health care executive Mike Fernandez, co-chairperson of the pro-immigration business group behind a Spanish-language radio campaign critical of DeSantis immigration policies, said the bill was shameful and crafted for political reasons.

It hurts employers already facing extreme shortages of workers and innocent children cared for by faith institutions like the Archdiocese of Miami, he told the Miami Herald in a statement.

Ahead of the Senate vote, Senate President Wilton Simpson told reporters that it is now up to the House to see what it does with the measure.

Well see if they take it up, Simpson said.

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Originally posted here:
Florida Senate passes immigration bill with Biden in mind - Tampa Bay Times

SCATTERED ALL OVER THE EARTHBy Yoko TawadaTranslated by Margaret Mitsutani

In the future imagined by Yoko Tawada, rising sea levels have swallowed Japan. The land of sushi, as it is now known, survives only in the kitschified traces its culture has left on the exoticizing imagination of Westerners, and in the memories of Hiruko, who was studying abroad in Sweden when disaster struck, and may be the last Japanese person on the planet. Now a stateless refugee, Hiruko migrates first to Norway, then to Denmark, where she finds a job teaching Panska (that is, Pan-Scandinavian), the homemade language she invented, to immigrant children from the Middle East.

The first volume of a trilogy, the mordantly funny Scattered All Over the Earth reunites Tawada with Margaret Mitsutani, the translator with whom she shared a National Book Award for The Emissary in 2018. Tawada, who has lived in Germany for 40 years, writes in both Japanese and German. More than simply international, her writing is translingual; she leaves the borders between languages open and allows them to cross-pollinate. To translate her into English is to excavate linguistic strata: Panska reads like a Japonic parody of Nordic syntax translated into a West Germanic language.

Wouldnt it be easier to communicate in English? Hiruko is asked during a reluctant appearance on a Danish TV show about people from countries that no longer exist. But in the future, Mexicos booming economy is attracting Spanish-speaking workers from California, China no longer exports products and no one in the United States remembers how to make anything. Europes welfare states are looking to cut costs, so english speaking migrants sometimes by force to america sent, Hiruko tells the interviewer, in Panska. Frightening. illness have, so in country with undeveloped healthcare system cannot live.

Through the TV show, Hiruko meets Knut, an amateur linguist. Together they crisscross Europe on a picaresque quest to find one of Hirukos compatriots. They travel to an umami festival in Germany, where they meet Akash, a transgender student from India, and Nora, a German with a highly developed sense of liberal guilt. Then theyre off to see Noras lover, Tenzo, at a cooking competition in Norway, before departing again for the south of France to meet with the enigmatic Susanoo, who is rumored to be from Japan, but may in fact be a robot.

Each character in Tawadas band of zigzag travelers is given chapters to narrate in the first person. These limited perspectives give rise to a comedy of intercultural misunderstandings that both move the plot forward and provide targets for Tawadas sharp satire. Tenzo, for example, turns out to be Nanook, a Greenlander who moves to study medicine in Copenhagen, where he is mistaken as a citizen of the land of sushi. Being singled out as an exotic was a lot more fun than being neutral, he concludes, so he decides to give himself a second identity. He adopts a Japanese name, learns the language and apprentices at a restaurant called Samurai. Nanook is shocked to discover that the head chef is from China, not Japan, and that he learned how to make dashi at a hotel in Paris, not Tokyo. When the original no longer exists, the chef tells him, theres nothing you can do except look for the best copy.

Wise words. Far from being offended by Nanooks imposture, Hiruko recognizes a kindred spirit. His Tenzo may be a lie but it is nevertheless a form of creative expression, not unlike her Panska. When she calls it her homemade language, she herself is the home she means. Panska was me, Hiruko says. A work of art Id poured my whole self into. What is true of Hiruko, Tawada suggests, is true of everyone from the harmless Nanook to an ultranationalist called Breivik: Our national identities are at bottom simulacra, copies of originals that no longer exist, if they ever did.

The apocalypse thats shrewdly forecast by Scattered All Over the Earth will be combined and uneven. How the global north handles the resulting refugee crisis will depend in part on the speed with which it gives up the view that nationalities are anything but virtualities. Judging by the recent migrant crises that informed Tawadas novel, it is a long-overdue lesson. By the time we are reading the trilogys final volume, the climate-fiction scenario Tawada drapes in the trappings of picaresque comedy will no longer seem speculative.

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When Nations Disappear, What Happens to Nationalities? - The New York Times

In November 2021, migrants from Syria, Iraq and other war-torn regions gathered on Belaruss border with Poland attempting to cross into the European Union. They were met with a chilling warning from Polish border guards, blasted over loudspeakers in English: Force may be used.

Polands President Andrzej Duda claimed his border guards and police were staving off a migrant invasion orchestrated by Belarus - an apparent attack on the countrys sovereignty and an attempt to upend regional peace.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the other hand claimed that the migrants are just trying to find refuge in Germany and accused Poland of spraying them with chemicals and beating them.

Through interviews and state media, both world leaders positioned themselves as heroes and victims of a humanitarian crisis that saw thousands of desperate people enduring freezing temperatures at the border. Both leaders threatened to involve their partners in defence for Poland, NATO, and for Belarus, Russia.

The crisis began when the EU and U.S. sanctioned Belarus after its 2020 presidential election. Lukashenko won 80 percent of the vote, but there were widespread claims of electoral fraud.

In June 2021 Lukashenko retaliated by announcing that he would no longer police his countrys border with the EU. This, along with reduced visa restrictions, drew a surge of people hoping to use Belarus as a gateway to the EU. A migrant crisis along the borders between Belarus and Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland began to build, with Western heads of state accusing Lukashenko of manufacturing the crisis.

By November, the focal point of the crisis was along the Polish-Belarusian border, with an estimated 3-4,000 migrants living in encampments.

The situation quickly escalated.

The UN called for both sides to meet their obligations to refugees, while the EU condemned Lukashenko. Poland met with NATO leadership, asking for more forces to be deployed on its eastern flank. Russia sent strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace. Referring to the aircraft Lukashenko said, Yes, these are bombers that are able to carry nuclear weapons. But we have no other choice. Polands Duda said he was considering using the backing of NATO if necessary.

As the situation at the Poland-Belarus border escalated, Russia simultaneously began a massive troop build-up along its border with Ukraine. Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's Prime Minister, said the migrant crisis and the troop build-up were "absolutely connected". U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken alleged that the migrant crisis was being used to distract from the troop build-up, although the Kremlin repeatedly denied the allegations.

By December, at least ten migrants had died at the border. There were some signs of de-escalation - Belarus said it was relocating migrants to heated shelters - but Belarus continued to perform military exercises with Russia into 2022, and by February, Russia had 30,000 troops stationed in Belarus, according to NATO.

On the 18th of February 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden said Moscow had stationed as many as 190,000 troops in and around Ukraine. On Thursday, Russia invaded Ukraine and launched military attacks across the country.

In this episode of Source Material we see how in the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lukashenko and Duda used state media to frame the humanitarian crisis to their political advantage. Through cellphone and state propaganda we get a sense of the dire and terrifying reality on the ground for asylum-seekers. And finally, we see how the escalating tension between Belarus and Poland preceded a Russian troop build-up in Belarus in the months leading up to this weeks invasion of Ukraine.

The rest is here:
How Russias Invasion of Ukraine Started With Belarus - VICE