Media And The Dehumanization Of Refugees

There is a certain perniciousness about the contemporary intolerable outsider otherwise known as the migrant of the Middle East spreading throughout the European Union (EU). Statistics about the numbers of outsiders pouring in are distorted through panic and trepidation that has festered through the conglomeration of the masses of migrants and with the actors pulling the strings behind the system of migrations. These actors fuel the current discourse of the migrant, refugee, or potential asylum member. In other words, the media, politicians, and devout bureaucracies have seized upon the migrant, creating the migration industry to project the migrant as a dehumanized, unknown, and potentially dangerous entity that is abounded within a wave full
Much has been written about the threat of migrants lurking outside of the European gates and shores: news reports, documentaries, and photographs in which the capricious migrant is followed and scrutinized by the media. These resources lead to an inevitable convergence of the public’s perceptions. Media consumers enjoy binaries. Ergo, there is no in-between in the framing of migrants, refugees, and asylum members: they are either a risk or “just people,” but it is easier to frame them as a risk because consumers know how to deal with a risk. Thus, the media simultaneously develops and addresses audiences’ preconceptions about the migratory
Due to current discourse that labels refugees and migrants as a homogenized wave, the tsunami of outsiders is treated as a mass that requires a generic solution. However, the current strategies and policies that address migration at its source should be explored in order to encourage successful assimilation into American society. The idea of assimilation, in this sense, is more like the notion of multiculturalism in which two or more different cultures may coexist peacefully in a shared location. At the commencement of the process of assimilation, the anthropologist should be present to ensure a smoother transition into America. In other words, the anthropologist should assist in the relocation services by identifying which segments (age, productive ability, etc.) of refugees would better assimilate in different gateway, or refugee-receptive, communities to ensure smooth assimilation. Anthropologists must ensure that refugees receive the same equal rights and protections as other segments of (mainstream or otherwise known as the majority) societies by analyzing the individual refugee to help him or her better integrate. Anthropologists need to be the voices of insight and compassion. The following will address different approaches that anthropologists may take if, theoretically, the United States approves the entrance of 20,000 political refugees