Rachel Hamada is media and communications officer at Scottish Refugee Council
“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” The classic rhyme, designed to make children immune to the taunts of playground bullies, has a good ring to it, but we all know it’s not true. Nobody wants broken bones, but words leave mental scars on us that can be even more long-lasting, and they can also influence how our society works.
One area in which language has been influential and has helped to shape public attitudes and government policy is that of migration. Over the last decade in the UK, a perfect storm of media cynicism and political short-termism has resulted in the debate around all kinds of migration being couched in highly emotive, prejudicial and often inaccurate language.
We’re glad, therefore, that the Guardian in its blog post at the weekend has opened up this debate and in particular has chosen the term “illegal immigrant” for scrutiny. In the article, rather than drawing conclusions, the author, who is the paper’s Readers Editor, invites ideas about what kind of language we should use around migration.
Nobody is ‘illegal’
We would certainly welcome more consideration of the words used. The Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants earlier this year published a guide recommending that the misleading word ‘illegal’ be dropped when referring to migrants. In Australia, there has also been much discussion about the importance of wording, especially the word ‘illegal’.
No person is “illegal” – it is not a criminal act to be born or to be alive on this earth.
From our point of view, some of those of come into this country without prior approval are those who are fleeing severe persecution and have taken desperate measures to get themselves and their families to a place of safety. Calling them “illegal” just stigmatises them without looking at who they are and what they have been through.
A fair world?
Even in the case of economic migrants there are often complex socio-political reasons why people are urgently seeking a new life away from home – often connected to poverty that in turn is linked to the way in which the world’s economic system is dominated by a handful of rich countries and multinational companies, and poor countries are stuck servicing impossible levels of debt.
As Robert Owen said at New Lanark: “No infant has the power of deciding at what period of time, and in what part of the world, he shall come into existence.”
Scottish Refugee Council is planning to run media training on reporting on asylum and refugee issues – to note interest and be updated on our plans, please email: media@scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk
