On June 20th, while some celebrate World Refugee Day (why not!), Josefa would like to remind us that, according to its vision and experience at the Josefa House, since 2015, in Brussels, we shouldn’t segregate, exclude, even with the best of intentions.
Indeed, how can we humbly guard against our own birth, a fundamental migration if ever there was one? Who would think to self-apply a lifelong discriminatory label that could admittedly provide certain benefits but, at the same time, incite rejection?
Who would be “crazy” or “pretentious” enough to claim a “I am a migrant” title within this group identified as “migrants”, while this “socio-political-media” notion remains vague and especially since, with very diverse contours, it can be claimed by anyone.
But, more radically, whatever our convictions, should we not consider that we are migrants, since our birth and death, and between the two, our lives, are in fact migrations? Biological migration, temporal migration, spatial migration, environmental migration, intellectual migration… spiritual migration. Everything in us and beyond us, human beings as well as living beings, everything is migration.
But then, our migrations are both present and past, more current than ever in the sense that they are a unique present for each one of us, but also timeless in the sense of an eternity that surpasses us.
Therefore, as dramatic as they may be, with regards to the so-called asylum applications leading to possible refugee statuses, pigeon-holing the spatio-temporal migrations of a few under this sad and problematic term “migrants” would deny all remaining humanity, yesterday, today and tomorrow, its migrating fullness or even its potential completeness in a timeless migration.
It is true that, in this way of perceiving or receiving our migrations, some might see a provocation (why not!). But, if there is a pro-vocation, it is precisely to invite us to remember (just like this “Migrant-Refugee” Day on June 20 aims to do) that, all, without any excuses and without any kind of discrimination, and without confusion (every migration is unique), we are in the footsteps of our migrant humanity, walking with one heart in step with our timeless migrations.
Therefore, with the greatest respect, happy World Refugee Day to all of us.
Gilbert
