The US election result should galvanise us to resist the far-right

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The US election result should galvanise us to resist the far-right

Trump’s re-election threatens refugee rights globally. Now is the time to stand for humanity!

17 January 2025

The US election result should galvanise us to resist the far-right

The election of Donald Trump as US President, on the back of a second campaign based in anti-immigrant, and far right rhetoric, gives cause for serious concern on many levels. Among other things, there is good reason to be profoundly troubled about its potential impact refugees and forcibly displaced people, not only in the US but globally.

The first pledge of Trump’s 2024 campaign was to “seal the border and stop migrant invasion” – a threat to deny refugees access to safe haven, justified by demonisation and dehumanisation that casts people hoping for somewhere to rebuild their lives as posing an existential threat. His election places refugee rights and more specifically access to asylum in even greater danger in the United States, with potential to influence other countries too.

The previous Trump administration hugely expanded the detention of asylum seekers; separated asylum seeking families; aggressively pursued the criminalisation of seeking asylum; and enacted numerous barriers to asylum, including the processing of US asylum claims in Mexico, and culminating in an effective asylum ban for people arriving via the southern border – a policy that has largely continued to operate. There are, to put it mildly, no signs that the next Trump administration wants to take a more measured approach. At the same time, Trump boasts of his refusal to be adhere to international law and international agreements. In a context where asylum processes already undermine the Refugee Convention, there is a real risk that it will cease to apply altogether under a new Trump administration. This is not unique to the US national context, but an instance of an international trend. Richer countries are building walls. Governments across Europe are erecting barriers to asylum, closing borders, and pursuing the externalisation of asylum. The EU Migration Pact represents a huge erosion of refugee rights, laying plans for the systematic detention of people seeking asylum at the EU’s external borders, and introducing new barriers to asylum.

In the UK, the previous government introduced an asylum ban and attempted to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda. The new government has, thankfully, ended the asylum ban, at least for now. Nonetheless, it continues to implement recent laws that criminalise asylum, to expand immigration detention, and to loudly focus on making it harder to reach the UK, and explores fresh ways to externalise asylum. We are facing the prospect not only of Fortress USA, but also Fortress Britain and Fortress Europe.

As well as having a direct impact on asylum policy, the election result risks deepening the climate emergency, and so fostering the conditions of forced displacement. Donald Trump previously removed the USA from the Paris accords, a key international agreement to tackle the climate emergency, and he has repeatedly touted his commitment to sourcing fossil fuels. If, as seems likely, his presidency marks a move away from action to reduce reliance on fossil fuels this will deepen the climate emergency, making more of our planet uninhabitable, exacerbating wider volatility, and forcing more people to flee their homes.  And if this happens within a more an unstable political climate globally, where many regions become less safe, there will be much volatility to exacerbate.

As we consider the election’s potential to cause forced displacement, our minds turn to Ukraine, so far supported heavily by the US in defending itself against Russia. A Trump presidency raises the possibility of a different approach to Ukraine. Whilst acknowledging there are many unknowns, there might be reason to be concerned that, on one hand, Ukraine becomes even less safe for its citizens, fuelling further – and longer-term – displacement. In this case countries across Europe will have to decide whether to respond with bridges or walls. On the other, Europe as a whole could face greater instability and insecurity if Russia is emboldened. There are not necessarily easy answers here. But there are many questions we need to ask.

We also have urgent questions about our own society. This US election result follows hot on the heels of racist, ant-migrant violence in the UK, and the growth of a far-right party in the last UK General Election. We should remember that our own politics could follow a worrying trajectory. But it does not have too. We have a chance – and a duty – to build a different future. Let’s not allow ourselves to reach a point where we do not see the humanity of those unlike us. Now, more than ever, is the time to defend the right to asylum, and to choose policies that foster humanity, dignity, and justice in our asylum and immigration system.


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Jesuit Refugee Service UK
The Hurtado Jesuit Centre
2 Chandler Street, London E1W 2QT

020 7488 7310
uk@jrs.net

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