Lost in the Fog: Immigrants and Refugees, Bureaucrats and Activists

At least since Emma Lazarus’s famous sonnet became associated with the Statue of Liberty, Americans have confounded important differences between immigrants and refugees. Cold War politics contributed further to that misapprehension. In recent years the continuing crisis at our southern border has rendered this confusion more evident and problematic. At the same time, a global refugee crisis of genuinely historic proportions has been unfolding. More than ever, it is critical to delineate carefully between the needs of refugees and the preferences of immigrants. Yet now there are strong counter-pressures at work, blurring critical distinctions between these two categories. These are particularly evident in the international political arena, where the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is highly susceptible to pressure from the media, academics, and activists to once again confound the two.