Today is the International Migrants Day, and we at Rescogita feel that we should take a pause to understand this phenomena, which actually was our first nature at the very start of our civilisation when we lived in nomadic tribes.
Rescogita is a company grounded on the principles of ecopsychology, with a vision and mission to promote, reinstate and build connection and cooperation among humans and between humans and nature through our services, and one of our (thankfully not only our) understandings is how everything is interconnected. Many wealthy and less wealthy countries are complaining about today’s unprecedented migration crisis, combined with climate crisis, combined with financial instability and, if that was not enough, a global pandemic came along too. There are two options here, either we are truly unlucky, or somehow everything is connected; and no we are not talking about nature taking vengeance on humans for their behaviour towards the biosphere (even though that would be understandable) we for sure do not fall into the trap of attributing human behaviours to the non-human world, rather to observe it and understanding it in a non-anthropocentric way.
It was not long ago when we saw long lines of migrants walking from Central America towards the United States, searching for the American Dream? Looking after welfare cash? The answer is much simpler, cocoa farmers seeing their crops failing year after here, as temperatures rose and rains diminished for the first time affecting the region’s humid and fragile climate, therefore not migrants but environmental refugees.
Another example? Let’s take the bloodiest war of the decade, Syria, massive an unnatural draughts prior to 2010 led the government to make drastic land and agricultural reforms, as well as to counter the flocks of farmers migrating to the cities after seeing their crops fail over and over. The land reform fails and creates even more poverty and risks of hunger leading the people to rebel against the authorities, and that escalated quickly involving also the water basins which influence irrigation and life sustainment in both Turkey and Syria. Result, millions of refugees having to escape the lands. These are just two of hundreds of stories of how a once friendly and suitable environment to life has become hostile, forcing its inhabitants to move out. Changes that are occurring at unprecedented speed in our planet’s lifespan and threatening the essence of life itself, the intervention is necessary then on two levels; work on solidarity and community organising and building understanding that the existential problems we face concern everybody and only together this can be overcome, as these problems know no borders. Second, to use our science, technology, inborn empathy and care for ourselves and one another to truly understand and connect with the non-human world, because it is our nature too.
L. Nava