Seeking Refuge: Asylum Seekers and Politics in a Globalising World

The tragedy facing refugees is man made at all levels. People do not easily leave their homes, communities, friends, relatives, and often the familiarity of their first language, culture and religion. Yet the extreme circumstances which cause refugees to do so are not 'natural' events-earthquakes, floods or droughts. In the most immediate sense we can blame local elites, dictators or ethnic hatreds for these millions of personal tragedies which make up the refugee 'crisis'. But they are more than that. The behaviours of these elites and dictators and the revival or acceleration of ethnic hatred are not purely the result of local conjunctions. There is far too much similarity across many tragedies-from Rwanda to Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Sri Lanka-for that to be an adequate explanation. They are a product of a world system in which 'zones of instability' are a predictable result of the workings of a market system, now more aggressive and unforgiving than ever.