Refugees and migrants
represent not merely a problem but also a solution in the sense of Global
Capital Infrastructure. If configured as a trans-global net that inculcates
its own form of statehood, the world's refugee population in toto is the
best candidate for a socio-economic and political/ideological avant-garde
of the millennium. A Refugee Republic may become a model state for the
rest of the world which heretofore has relied on gradual modifications
of exhausted historical, socio-political structures.
The historical refugee republics of modern history, the USA foremost, show that a steady flow of foreigners is an essential part of the success of the richest countries in the world; yet, public consciousness of this fact is at an all-time worldwide low. Even refugees suffer an identity crisis.
With its reduced social and ecological capacity to take in new refugees, the USA is losing long-term international authority and ideological right of leadership as it will eventually no longer convincingly represent a comprehensive spectrum of cultures, civilizations and religions.
At the same time, national borders all over the world become ever less permeable which may be explained by the easy availability of surveillance electronics and passive war machinery, especially mines. Borders can be projected at whim with a minimum of effort. On the other hand, ethnic, national, and geographical zones of tolerance fall victim to the transportation and information revolution/explosion. Today, it appears to be easier than ever to start a war and more difficult than ever to end it. The officially acknowledged 23 million refugees of an ever-growing refugee population (unofficially estimated at 50 million) is scattered all over the world, parked in UN camps. By now, the number of unregistered displaced persons worldwide has reached one percent of the world population.
Not too long ago, traditional refugee republics like the United States, Canada, Australia, and Israel sought after refugees and competed for the benefit of absorbing them. Today, industries are lured from one country to another with the help of tax incentives and other inducements in the same way successful immigrant countries once tried to coax potential emigrants into their borders.
Presently, refugees are nearly always regarded as an economic and social burden. It is the myth of actions in the name of the national interest, as well as short-sighted perspectives ó having one eye on the 'standard of living' and the other on the preservation of the status quo ó that force refugees, migrants, asylum seekers, nomads and displaced persons into the role of a reluctant international avant-garde. Recognized as refugees by the UN (and several international conventions), they are kept alive in camps, prisoners of international charity with their status established and confirmed.
This group is not just supra-national but also multilingual, multi-cultural, and multi-religious. It commands neither territory nor capital. It has neither democratic structure nor any suitable form of political presentation or even any kind of government.
A next generation Refugee Republic has long-term potential: an experimental supra-territorial state, multi-cultural as well as multi-lingual and multi-religious, would be able to anticipate socio-ideological and economic challenges. It would both force and enable solutions. Such an entity would act as a structural model for the rest of the world.
The 23 million refugees officially recognized by the UN are equal in number to the inhabitants of Venezuela or Iraq, and account for a population even larger than that of Australia. However, the worldwide refugee population of non-registered refugees and displaced persons may actually be much higher. In its 1990 report, the United States Committee on Refugees estimated the number to be 47 million, almost as many refugees as resulted from World War II. Those 50 million refugees at the end of the war were mostly Europeans, who were absorbed relatively quickly by other Western nations. Today's heterogeneous refugee population is a global phenomenon comprising widely diverging cultures that resist simple assimilation. Since 1983, this group has been the fastest growing segment of the world population, with an average of 10 - 20% increase per year. Dotting the globe, these strangers account for 1% of the world population and are ranked twentieth on the list of the most populated countries (out of 220). The Refugee Republic has as many inhabitants as Turkey, nearly as many as Italy or England, and twice as many as Canada. If this trend would continue in a linear fashion, the Refugee Republic would surpass the United States or Russia within ten years.
Nation, State and Territory
Assuming that a nation consists
of an integral territory and a common culture and language and thus identity,
there is hardly a country today that is not multi-national; but there are
nations that exist without a country: the Kurds, the Navajo, the PLO, and
many other groups.
If it were possible for the refugees to pack and take with them a proportional part of their country (measured at approximately 37 people per square kilometer), it could be pieced together into a state the size of France, Germany, England, and Italy combined. Placed as an intercontinental federation, it would span the globe, never seeing the sun set. The old refugee republics developed because there still were large, sparsely inhabited areas to be discovered and conquered. Today, there are more than just moral reasons for not engaging in military conquests. The most one can expect are Pyrrhic victories ó an absurdity since wars have turned out to be economic disasters, even in the rare cases where there has been an apparent victor. All the earth's territories have been discovered, charted and densely populated, though to varying degrees. Ecological capacity has almost reached its limits. In the 20th century, space exploration ignited hopes for the discovery of new frontiers and colonies in space. It has not lived up to its promise.
A Refugee Republic of the next generation does not require its own national boundaries in the traditional sense. Sinti and Roma, two of the few nations that neither have nor demand their own countries are a good example of peoples who circumvented occupation of a territory in the usual sense. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Liechtenstein are successful countries even though they control negligible territories. Geostrategic position is more important than size. Education and communication are more important then space. The huge size of the territory covered by the former Soviet Union, the largest country on earth, contributed to its collapse rather than guaranteeing its survival. The small territory a Refugee Republic would need could be leased by the UN from larger countries or those which have no other way to profit from their lands.
By now, there is enough reason to classify parts of the electro-magnetic spectrum as a quasi-territorial area, making it the economical and constitutional foundation for the Refugee Republic.
Government
Refugees should have their
own administration and representation. For now, the UN appoints a High
Commissioner, and even the UNHCR is not a permanent institution of the
UN.
Refugees lack self-representation.
Democracy, so far, seems to defy implementation on this level. That should
be changed. Once an international refugee network has been established,
a yet to be defined democratic modality could be developed.
The Refugee Republic's sphere of influence is defined by migration routes and communication structures. It is a function of the transparency of national limits. Its citizenship would be determined by a worldwide transit visa, and a passport could be issued later.
Economy
It may be an indicator of
the potential volume of a refugee economy that in recent years, the income
generated by the approximately 2 million Egyptian migrants could almost
compete with the volume of Egypt's whole export industry ó it corresponded
to 75% of Egypt's annual exports. To calculate the current world refugee
economy is not just a statistical challenge. Many doubt its very existence.
But Bangladesh and many other countries would not be able to survive without
the financial support of their emigrants. Even the emigrants of the former
Yugoslavia constitute a hefty 30% of their countries export, making them
the single largest export "article."
And then there are countries profiting directly from the existence of refugees on their territory. In order to house the Cambodian refugees, the UN was required to lease land from the Thai government for more than 10 years. All relief care for the up to 300.000 refugees was to be bought in Thailand.
In 1992, the UNHCR's budget was US $ 1.2 billion. It has significantly increased since then.
The Refugee Republic can profit from the advantages of global power: without an official, significant territory and currency, but at least with a UN budget; without trade but with trans-national knowledge and contacts not affected by laws and borders banning trade; without a political structure but with a strong sense of peace and freedom; without a common language but with common fate, interests, and experiences.
The Model State
The United Sates profited
from the constitutional and philosophical ideals of Europe, which could
develop into models for the entire world on American soil ó with relative
independence, unencumbered by all the historical baggage. Today, Europe
is still reaping the fruits from the American perspective, which provides
a plausible mirror image allowing a credible view of Europe's own present
and future. The countries that used to accept immigrants have reached saturation
and are no longer capable of representing the global spectrum. In this
sense, America and the world itself need a new refugee republic.
It would become a mirror
of the world which is to some extent still pre-political and partially
post-political ó in a time that has abandoned its visions and its ideological
super-structure of the modern in favor of a little defined disposition
towards relative positioning; in a world where diverging trends of globalization
have led to retribalization (ethnicization and regionalization). As Joseph
Nye observed, the world has not melted into one village but rather consists
of villages that are moving closer together and have lost their protective
distance from each other: geographical isolation vanished in the fog of
information. Many one-family homes are threatened to be turned into one
gigantic apartment complex.
Based on the sharing of differences, connected by common fate, experiences, and interests, as well as a high-speed data network, Refugee Republic will have to arbitrate between cultural multiplicity and formulate fundamentally necessary views and changes of the state principle, of collectivism and individualism; changes needed by the rest of the world if it is to survive.
As a hyper-cultural, hyper-lingual, and multi-ethnic, trans-global net-state, Refugee Republic would present the opportunity to fine-tune international law and ordinances, decisions and ideals of the UN, and to implement them as a model.
Above all, it will develop a contemporary ubiquitous understanding of human rights and duties and try to implement them. The constituting factor is being human under adverse conditions ó a situation more and more threatening to become the norm for the rest of the world. The "multiplicity gone wild" lamented by Ralf Dahrendorf describes a fate that the Refugee Republic already confronts with the utmost consequence.
This unique supranational
and supraterritorial state deserves membership and corresponding representation
in the UN, as well as other international organizations, in order for the
world public to be able to watch the experiments, experiences, and solutions.
It will thus be able to participate in the most direct way possible.