ABSTRACT
For nearly fifty years, from the conclusion of the Second World War until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world was divided into two camps, communist and non-communist. In geographic terms, the enemies were the East and the West, each fearing annihilation by the other. Today the Soviet Union is dead and communism an aged shadow, but a cold war of a different kind haunts us. The enemies now face off from north and south, and the threat is not annihilation, but invasion, invasion of the countries of the north by armies of migrants from the south. In this war, the armies of the north are border patrols and immigration authorities, the weapons restrictive laws, interdictions, “humane deterrence,” and forced repatriations. Political leaders in the north appeal to patriotism and to fear, the fear of strangers crossing their borders. But the enemy is not a monolith; all migrants are not driven by the same needs, not drawn by the same prospects. Many of these migrants are refugees, people driven by fear of persecution and drawn by hope of safe haven.
