Vishen Lakhiani argues that borders and anti-immigrant policies deepen division instead of creating safety. One in 110 people globally is a refugee or asylum seeker. In 2018, the U.S. admitted 22,491 refugees, the lowest since 1977, despite a 45,000 cap.
Questions this video answers
One in every 110 people globally.
45,000 refugees (cap).
22,491 (the lowest number since 1977).
Chapters
Borders do not keep us safe. I don't know how many more wars we need to fight before we realize this. We defend our borders to death. We build walls around them, we patrol them, thinking that we are keeping out our enem. But what we're really doing is turning ourselves into the enemy. When we turn away the hungry, the desperate, the homeless, what we are doing is reinforcing an age old narrative that there is an ongoing battle of us versus them. That strangers are eternally the enemy. That we are the honorable and the good. But what does it look like? What do we look like to the family who has fled a war torn country for the hope of a better life only to be turned away by those who could help them? What do we look like when we separate children from their families at the border? What do we look like when we take away someone's last hope? Borders do not keep us safe. They create hostility. They give those who want to join us a reason to despise us instead. And this cycle of resentment won't end until we begin breaking down the barriers between us. There is no change without human connection. There is no alleviation of conflict and hatred. Without the understanding of that. All of us, citizens and refugees alike, are operating from a place of fear. As Wasan Shire once wrote, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land. The question is, who will put their fear down first? Who will be the first to reach out a hand? We do not ask people who are in pain, who are struggling, who are desperate to keep their families fed, to be the bigger person. We do not ask them to forgive us for our lack of compassion. We do not ask them because we don't have that right. We are sitting in heated homes contemplating over a hot meal what the best choice for our children might be. They are in the trenches fighting for their children's lives. Right now, one in every 110 people globally is either an asylum seeker, displaced or a refugee. And in the year 2018, the US had a cap of 45,000 refugees that were permitted to enter the country they admitted. 22,491. This is the lowest number since 1977. We're at a point in history where we have the means to ease the pain of people who are fighting for their lives. We have the means to begin shifting our thinking. We have the means to change the narrative on what it means to be a citizen of the world rather than a citizen of a given country. Because when we close our borders and turn away the desperate, we decide that our lives are more important than someone else's, we make a statement. That statement is we are not the same. My humanity is not the same as your humanity. One of our lives matters more. This statement is one that has divided, guided us for thousands of years. It is a statement that has instigated world wars, broken families apart, caused us to elect nationalist leaders, and kept us locked in an endless state of conflict for as long as we have been on Earth. It is a statement that risks our safety more than it secures it. Because as long as there is hatred and division in the world, none of our children are completely safe. So I urge you to open your hearts. Don't believe those who ask us to fear people who look different from us. Leaders who lack vision have to win votes through Division. The greatest threat in the world today is not the refugee. The greatest threat is that good people, people like you and me, choose to close our hearts to other people's suffering because we think that Division will save us. It will not save us. We have to be the ones who save us. And if we don't start now, what kind of world are we leaving our children? Sam.
