When the Border Says No
Immigrants by land and sea can also face obstacles to entry when they reach their destinations. Consider the case of the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in 1939. The passengers were denied entry in the United States, Canada, and Cuba, and many ultimately died in Nazi concentration camps. More recently, the United States has stopped allowing people to ask for asylum at its southern border; European countries are also increasingly reluctant to accept refugees. Explore the reasons behind these anti-immigrant policies; do some make more sense than others? Then, discuss with your team: how open should countries be to those arriving at their borders in dire need? Should there be limits on the number admitted, and, if so, how should those limits be calculated?
In 1939 the St. Louis, flying a Nazi flag, reaches Havana carrying Jewish refugees — and Cuba revokes their visas, the U.S. turns the ship away off the lights of Miami, and it sails back to Europe, where many aboard later die in concentration camps. Reaching the shore, it turns out, is not the same as being let in.
Key concepts
- Quota System
- A fixed yearly cap on how many people from a given country may be admitted; the St. Louis passengers were trapped by a U.S. rule letting in only about 27,000 a year from Germany and Austria.
- Non-refoulement
- The principle that you must not send refugees back to a place where they face danger — a cornerstone of refugee law forged partly because of catastrophes like the St. Louis, where return meant the camps.
- The Perception Gap
- When public fear of immigration runs far ahead of the actual numbers — across the EU, immigration topped voters' concerns even as arrivals fell.
- Populist Backlash
- A surge of anti-immigrant politics that pushes mainstream parties to harden; even welcoming Sweden saw a far-right party rise after struggling to integrate the asylum-seekers it took in.
What to know
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Physical arrival and legal admission are different things: the St. Louis passengers reached both Cuban and American waters and were still refused — so a border is less a line on a map than a decision a government makes, and 'getting there' guarantees nothing.
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