Help Ukrainian refugees, but help all refugees, too

When you live in a city as big as New York, you meet all kinds of people. That includes refugees.

In living, working and walking the city, I’ve met refugees from Chechnya, Somalia, Bangladesh, Poland and Liberia. These are just the countries I can recall easily.

In every decade since 1910, there has been a refugee crisis somewhere. In one decade between 2008 and 2018, the total number of refugees worldwide more than doubled from 33.9 million to 74.7 million. Even if you’re not a 24-hour news cycle junkie, you’ve still probably heard something about the numerous hardships facing Armenians, Palestinians, Syrians, Ukrainians, Rohingyas, Uyghurs, or Ethiopians.

When you meet a refugee, you meet a survivor — someone who never had a choice about leaving their home. A refugee may not know whether it was circumstance, coincidence — or some combination thereof — that delivered them to safety. They may not want to know, either.

Remember that for every survivor, there are countless others who never escaped war, street violence, poverty or starvation. While each individual may have a story, there’s always one part which remains the same. Remaining in place means violence or death. Leaving means living. Therefore, there really was no choice.

In January 2016, I was in Munich. A friend recommended that I visit a monument within the Hofgarten. As I ascended the U-Bahnhof stairs to Odeonsplatz, my nose dipped into my scarf for warmth. Witb snow falling lightly, I could see the crowds. Protest met with counter-protest.

I asked a few police officers standing by what the protest was about. In Germany, the police smile when you approach them. They know their history well.

“Hi! I came to see the Kriegerdenkmal, but did not expect this. Who is protesting?”

“Pegida. They are anti-immigration and anti-Islam, protesting the entree of Syrian refugees into Germany. The other group is protesting Pegida. You should avoid the protest. Enjoy the garden.”

The cop was right. It was time to go. I was 25 years old. This was not my country, not my city. And, at the time, seemed to be not my problem.

I turned away from the barricades and walked toward the Hofgarten entrance. Before entering, I couldn’t help noticing the Feldherrnhalle, with its Italianate arches and columns, at the far end of the plaza. The Feldherrnhalle was one of several sites where Hitler spoke to organized crowds — a place where he seeded the largest refugee crisis in history.

A stone’s throw, across generations, from one xenophobic protest to another. A hate-stained Odeonsplatz, once again.

On April 5, more than 4.2 million people had already fled Ukraine to escape the Russian military invasion. Several European countries have made commitments to receive refugees. And recently, President Biden announced the United States would welcome up to 100,000.

Global solidarity for Ukraine has been inspiring, but not without its bias. As Ukrainians will soon enter the United States without a hearing, we continue to turn away people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. There has been no official exception made for Ukranians to Title 42, a public health directive which side-steps due process in the name of preventing the spread of communicable diseases.

We let in some, we reject others.

Whether you support or oppose this action, it’s abundantly clear that skin color still drives U.S. immigration policy. Yet another hallmark of the American judicial system is uneven enforcement.

Regardless of numbers, religion or skin color, all refugees deserve equal treatment under the law. When someone flees violence, care need not be earned or qualified. An individual’s choice between life and death is truly no choice at all. We must grant asylum to Ukrainians, and we must do the same along our southern border.

If we cannot realize a world without violence and hate, then perhaps similarly, we, the wealthy nations, deserve no choice in resettling the displaced peoples who arrive on our doorstep.

Personal stories don’t fit political ideologies. The West needs to rectify its prejudice against non-white and Muslim countries.