In process of globalization, it seems that strangers no longer exist in a faraway land, but rather are no further away than one’s backyard. Strangers in the form of immigrants (legal and illegal) and refugees call into question established spatial images of domesticity versus anarchy and chaos, giving rise to intense desires for order and stability and an easily identifiable community. The irony of the refugees that have resulted from the war on terror is that the very countries who created the situation from which the individuals seek refuge are the very ones refusing to take any responsibility for the displaced people’s plight.
Kathryn Stockett (2009), in The Help, reveals the difficulty – but not the impossibility – of traversing the barriers of race and establish genuine human connection, empathy, and concern for the well-being and treatment of others previously seen as “one of them”. As the 1960s drew to close, numerous events suggested that the nation was responding seriously to the urban racial crisis. The irony of the refugees that have resulted from the war on terror is that the very countries who created the situation from which the individuals seek refuge are the very ones refusing to take any responsibility for the displaced people’s plight (Streich, 2011, p. 151).
This role of the aggressor was adopted by the US despite the fact that police measures have been shown to be much more effective in curbing terrorism than waging war (Streich, 2011, p. 151). These police measures, which have also been adopted by all countries that fear targeting by terrorist groups, include increased security at airports and on airplanes as well as non-combative foreign policy measures. The use of war has been shown to do little more than exacerbate poor conditions in the victim country as well as increasing the hatred that can result against the perceived aggressor, as has been demonstrated in the recent war against Iraq.
Nevertheless, the policies to keep out refugees continue and intensify. How is this justified? From a racist perspective, the mixing of cultures is perceived to be a mistake, because it breaks down one’s own identity and can lead to social conflict between cultures. In this sense, racism is a purist perspective, built upon the same thinking that drove Israel to build a wall separating two halves of a highway and drove US policy-makers in the 1950’s to create “separate but equal” restaurants, facilities, and housing for blacks and whites (Gareau, 2004, p. 190). The thought process is substantiated in the minds of those who adhere to it by the idea that in order to maintain its identity, a nation must isolate itself from the influence of “the other” (p. 190).
The fear against this newly developed enemy began with the paranoid and unfounded propaganda that the enemy would develop and use weapons of mass destruction against NATO countries —nuclear weapons, or more likely, radiological dispersion devices, also called “dirty bombs” (conventional bombs to which radioactive material has been added). This war is defined as an open-ended war with the world as its battlefield and no end in sight.
