Alexander Betts
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in Argentina. Each o these countries handles work permits, public
services, and refugee status dierently. In light o the xenophobic back-
lash in several countries, some governments have put in place deter-
rence measures similar to those that European states used back in 2015;
Ecuador, for instance, has introduced a policy requiring Venezuelans to
present their criminal records at the border in response to an upsurge
in anti-immigrant violence in late 2018.DITCH THE DICTIONARY
The crisis in the Americas—like the European one before it—has raised
questions about the usefulness o conventional categories such as “refu-
gees” and “economic migrants.” The £’s 1951 Refugee Convention de-
Äned a refugee as someone who has “a well-founded fear o being
persecuted for reasons o race, religion, nationality, membership o a
particular social group or political opinion.” In the 1980 Refugee Act, the
U.S. Congress enshrined that description in U.S. law, as well. But the
1951 deÄnition was written to address the upheavals o the early Cold
War, especially the emigration o Soviet dissidents. Today, most migrants
are not Áeeing powerful regimes that are out to get them. Nor are they
simply seeking better economic opportunities. Rather, they are running
from states that have failed or that are so fragile that life has become dif-
Äcult to bear for their citizens. What Europe saw in 2015 and what the
Americas are witnessing today are not simply refugee Áows or market-
driven population movements but rather “survival migration”—a term I
initially coined to describe the exodus o Zimbabweans from Robert
Mugabe’s regime in the early years o this century. Between 2003 and
2010, around two million Zimbabweans Áed to South Africa and other
neighboring states. Most o them wanted to escape hyperinÁation, ban-
ditry, and food insecurity—the economic consequences o the underly-
ing political situation—rather than political persecution per se. Because
the majority o these migrants could not be described as either refugees
or economic migrants, humanitarian action around the crisis stalled.
Many o the migrants who arrived in Europe in 2015, notably those
from Syria, were clearly refugees under the 1951 convention. Others—
including some Albanians and Kosovars who used the Balkan routes
toward Germany alongside the Syrians—were plainly economic mi-
grants. But signiÄcant numbers o those crossing the Aegean were Áee-
ing fragile states such as Afghanistan and Iraq. European governments
were, by and large, unsure o how to label these migrants. In the Ärst