Refugee. It’s a word a lot like ”victim” or even ”disabled”: it’s both hyper-specific and completely vague at the same time, creating a totally convenient, completely socially acceptable (and often unintentional) way to pigeonhole people in various life-altering circumstances.
”We wanted to emphasize that being a refugee was a temporary status, but being human was permanent.”
And so, as the word washes over you again and again, you stop to see the truth—like the 60 million people who are stranded from their home countries—and start to simply see a figure that’s a lot more convenient to quantify. While there are a record number of ”refugees” in the world, it can be hard to see the people.
