Amy Pope, the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, has warned that with 2024 set to see more elections, politicians are using anti-migrant rhetoric to score points while harming societies.
Apart from the US incumbent President Joe Biden gearing up for an electoral tussle with former President Donald Trump, numerous other elections are also coming up.
In an interview, the top lady of the IMO said politicians were taking “what can be a very easy route to lay whatever has gone wrong within society, whether it’s crime rates or inflation, unemployment or insecurity…at the feet of migrants.”
About half the global population will go to the polls in 2024.
In the US, migration is one of the primary focuses of the presidential election. Trump has said there is an “invasion” at the southern border and suggested that some of those entering the country are “not people.”
Pope warned that such comments could have serious consequences.
“When there’s dehumanization of any population, there are increasing reports of violence, increasing reports of discrimination, ultimately is bad for society,” she said.
She continued that the fear-mongering is rarely rooted in what is happening on the ground. “Rhetoric and reality just don’t meet.”
Some countries where anti-migrant rhetoric is quite famous need migrants to keep their societies thriving. She pointed to the major “labor shortages in Europe.”
“In reality, the need for migration is not only existent…but it is going to increase fairly significantly in future years.”
