Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.


Migrants or refugees: what’s the right word?

The reason why 'migrant' and not 'refugee' so often is that the latter is usually conflated with UNHCR-identified programme refugees; it's then assumed to be a specific term, and ergo 'migrant' is preferable (coming from a standpoint of acute awareness of media law, at any rate). But of course, 'migrant' implies agency (in most people's ears, what they hear is 'economic migrant') whereas 'refugee' implies no choice but to GTFO. And you don't need to know the specifics to understand that the people fleeing conflict in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere are doing so out of absolute necessity. Refugees they are. #link