Words do Matter in the Refugee Debate
Over the past decade, refugees have been called all sorts of names in Canada. Refugees have been labeled: โqueue jumpers,โ โasylum shoppers,โ โillegal immigrants,โ โeconomic migrants,โ and โillegal border crossers.โ. To mention โillegalโ when describing refugees is to paint them with criminality. To call them โasylum shoppersโ implies that they are economic migrants and not genuine refugees. When a minister labels refugees with such denigrating names, it makes the populists think that they have allies in government.
