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?

Nine hundred refugees stand at the rail close enough to see the lights of Miami, and are turned back toward the country that is trying to kill them.

Key concepts

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.

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Every work — at a glance

The MS St. Louis (case)

The 1939 liner that carried over 900 Jewish refugees from Hamburg; Cuba, the U.S. (close enough to see Miami's lights), and Canada all refused them, and many later died in the camps.

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What to know

01
Physical arrival and legal admission are different things: the St. Louis reached both Cuban and American waters and was 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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Across subjects

It took Art to move a debate statistics couldn't: in 2015 a single photograph of a drowned toddler, Alan Kurdi, face-down on a Turkish beach, shifted Europe's

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

For the refugee, reaching the border is not reaching safety: 'there' is a status a government grants, not a coastline you can touch; the St. Louis passengers saw Miami's lights and were turned back to mortal danger. Do people in dire need have a claim that overrides quotas, or do nations have limits whose breach collapses into backlash?

Practice — a sample

SOCAmerican law in 1939 admitted about 27,000 Germans and Austrians a year, a cap set years before. Its MOST likely effect is —

A Answering before the hearing
B Rising with the danger
C Bending at the dock
D Shifting choice to officers
E Tracking the public mood

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