I find Governor Abbott’s bus policy fascinating. It seems that his aim is to impose the realities of irregular migration on Democratic cities that would have otherwise been insulated by geography from feeling its effects. It was interesting to note in the Bus by Bus NYT piece that Abbott had chosen the destination cities because they were run by Democrats who support Biden’s border policies. We talk about NIMBYism in the context of land development, but it seems to me that there is a fair amount of migration NIMBYism in the US too. On one level, Abbott has successfully highlighted the hypocrisy of those who supported looser border policies for Texas when they did not feel the effects. Now, there is broader support in these democratic cities for curbing migration. I noted in Donaldson’s timeline of the migration crisis in NYC that Eric Adams, at one point, said that the migrant issue would “destroy New York City”. So, Abbott has been very successful in his goal and on some level, I think there is a moral case that the burden of migration should be shared across the country. I thought the detail of the Cuban migrant who said that the Texan Governor was “very generous” for the bus ticket was wonderful. However, we must also acknowledge that Abbott seems to have malicious intent. It was striking that Texan officials do not provide any warning or notice when the buses are going to arrive. Moreover, they seem to be actively trying to inconvenience the city authorities. For example, when Mayor Adams instituted his order that buses had to provide some notice, the buses started dropping people at train stations in NJ. 

I was also curious about the shelter system in NY. Not only has the migrant crisis forced the city to alter its obligations to provide shelter to all, but the city is also tearing down migrant encampments that are springing up around the place. This reminds me very much of what is happening in northern France. There seems to be an implicit desire in this policy that the migrants will simply vanish. Where are the migrants supposed to go then? In reality, I think such policies are just making life more miserable for them. I read the comments on the NYT article about homeless migrants, and I was struck by the lack of sympathy for the migrants and the general view of them as a nuisance. I imagine that some people in NYC who condemn Abbott’s treatment of the migrants at the border are not thrilled about the migrants in NYC. 

I found the report on the “illegal hunters” streaming their content on Youtube very distrubing. I think there is a generalised dehumanisation of migrants happening in lots of Western countries. When people are consistently talked about as “illegals” or “aliens” and otherwise dehumanised, it follows that they should not enjoy the same basic rights or decent treatment that we would expect for ourselves. 

Finally, I have been thinking a lot about why migrants from Ukraine got such good treatment in the US and, indeed, in the UK while migrants from other countries do not. On a fundamental level, there is very little that distinguishes many Ukrainian refugees from many Middle Eastern, African, and South American migrants to Europe and the US in the past few years. I think racism and assumptions about Ukrainians’ potential to integrate are at the root of much of the lack of protest against Ukrainian refugees.