The wealthy asylees of climate change

I remember reading an Op-Ed in a leading Pakistani newspaper where the author had said that back in the good old days, he would visit the US embassy to get a visa and there never was a question of not getting it. All that was required was to visit the embassy. He had written that he would sip a cup of tea while his passport passed from one embassy official to the next. By the time the tea was finished, his passport was back in his hands with the US visa stamped in it. Those days sure seem like a fairytale from another world.

Then came the late 90s and the period after 9/11. Getting a US visa became close to impossible. People around the world started applying for Canadian immigration. The beautiful country offered the promise of a better life and more importantly better economic opportunities. Canada recruited the talent around the world to help keep its economic engine lubricated. The purpose has been to help Canada stay at a distance from the economic harshness the incoming migrants were running away from. The symbiotic relationship worked pretty well.

While that phase was the result of the neoliberal assault that was unleashed upon the world around the 1970s, the next phase of global migration would be driven by climate change. And I don’t mean the migration of the poor refugees but rather the migration of the rich. This would be the migration of the people not with the need but those who can afford the seat. This is going to be a bought migration. Whoever can afford to run away from the worst effects of climate change would be able to place an order.

Truth be told, this migration would have its roots in the same neoliberal assault because the selfish capitalist practices of the fossil fuel industry involved remaining silent over the devastating effects of the combustion of the very product they were selling. All for the sake of profits. Just as the neoliberal economic policies were devastating for the developing nations around the world but beneficial for a few corporations, the fossil fuel usage has also been devastating for everyone around the world except quite profitable for some corporations.

The previous generation of migrants escaped joblessness and poverty. The next generation of migrants would be trying to escape the devastating effects of climate change. Many regions around the world would become uninhabitable. Many others would lose any semblance of economic normalcy where getting access to basic necessities such as food and water would become close to impossible. Many regions around the world would mirror the current situation of Africa where life is defined by starvation, thirst, and disease.

Given this situation, only the wealthy and powerful nations around the world would be able to sustain some ability to support normal life. Today it is a symbol of status as well as a source of wealth for many people to retain citizenship of wealthy countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK, and so forth. In the near future, citizenship of such countries would become a necessity to remain alive. Strong and wealthy nations around the world would have the ability to keep their citizens afloat while many other nations if not all would be drowning in poverty, unlivable environments, and drowning literally in rising sea levels. Money and citizenship would be driving the life-saving engine on earth. This would be the ugliest manifestation of capitalism.

A generation of Pakistani, Indian and people from many other nations live in the western countries. For them, including yours truly, visiting the nation of birth is a beautiful pilgrimage every year. That will end. The move to foreign nations would become permanent. Today, people breathe fresh air to stay alive. In a world dominated by the rawness of climate change, people will stay alive only to breathe in some fresh air, if they can find it.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2022.

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