Ter Apel, a small, unassuming Dutch town near the German border, is a place tourists rarely have on their itinerary. There are no lovely old windmills, no cannabis-filled coffee shops and on a recent visit it was far too early for tulip season.
When foreigners end up there, it is for one reason: to claim asylum at the Netherlands’ biggest refugee camp, home to 2,000 desperate people from all around the world.
Many of the American refugees, like Jane-Michelle Arc, a 47-year-old software engineer from San Francisco, are transgender. In April last year she flew into Schiphol airport in Amsterdam and, sobbing, asked a customs officer how to claim asylum. “And they laughed because: what’s this big dumb American doing here asking about asylum? And then they realised I was serious.”
Arc said the US had become such a hostile environment for trans people that she had stopped leaving the house “unless there was an Uber waiting outside”. She said she had been abused on the street and using the ladies’ toilets, and resolved to leave the country after a frightening incident when she feared a woman was going to run her over with her truck.
Canada should really do more in this regard.
It’s not clear how long Canada can fend off the far right, both internally and from the USA. I hope we can survive but there are too many damn Conservatives around.
ConservativesfascistsThey’ve been the same for my entire life now. What do you think Nixon and his pals (some of whom are still in politics) were?
We need to ban American media entirely. Québec is lucky in that Americans haven’t figured out how to spew their propaganda in French yet. Sometimes I think we’d be better off as a country if we were all francophone
France has its own far-right problem. As do Germany and other countries. Language isn’t a barrier to fascism.
Unfortunately, many of us know English well and some are happy to consume that propaganda, so the infection has vectors to spread.
Honestly, the issue is deeper than that. Your government has been fighting a war on science and reason almost as long as ours has. Politicians and CEOs in your country have been hungrily watching what politicians allow them to get away with in our country for over half a century. It’s why they keep pushing for privatized healthcare for you and countries like the UK. The one that I’ll never forget was around 2010 when a conservative administration came into power and immediately shut down a multi-year study on UBI halfway through and then sealed the reports because it showed that all the things that they lie about are false. The only 2 groups to drop out of the workforce were pregnant women and students, graduation rates increased, as did college admission applications, and the economy in the area where the study took place saw a general boom as people were willing to spend more money. And all of that was on maybe a $1,500 a month UBI if I remember right.
Would be a win win if we can do some citizenship exchange with those that really want to split off to US.
This is actually part of my weekly letter writing campaign. Canada signed onto the Canada US Safe Third Country Agreement in 2002 which basically means Americans cannot seek refugee status in Canada because wherever you land on the combined territory is where you seek asylum. This means because Americans set foot in America first they cannot seek refugee status in Canada under the legal agreement. The agreement has some room for "exceptions " but it takes a lot of looking into from legal scholarship and has held a risk of American diplomatic retaliation…
Rainbow Railroad ,a Canadian based queer refugee charity, and a number of legal civil rights action groups have been campaigning for the past two years to start the process. A number of us have been writing to our MPs but with a lot of the crisises Canada has been dealing with from economic shocks and diplomatic wheeling and dealing to gain greater economic and security independence after a crash out with the US it seems to be ranked low on the agenda.
We should do more… But we’re also going through a political alliance shift the likes of which would have seemed unthinkable five years ago. It’s a shit situation and nobody seems to want to draw more agro.
Which is fucking killing me cuz I have so many trans American friends and I just want them to be actually safe 😭
Increasingly as I look around, there are no safe places. Everywhere has it’s own brand of problems, and many places are shutting doors rather than creating new paths.
Thank you for all of your efforts.
I read last month that Ireland has reconsidered the US as a safe country. They are more willing than most to buck the neolibreral dogma. But they are not better than most for conditions for refugees. The leftist cooks made a video about trans asylum seekers in Ireland.
They are not having a good time, and it’s not clear to me that they are definitely safer either.
We should garbage Bill C-2 then.
Lots of the Jews deported from Belgium, were recent refugees from Germany and further east. Might make sense to put more distance between yourself and the madmen.
Unfortunately, her case will almost surely be denied since the US has been designated a safe country by Dutch officials, and the trend in most of Europe, under pressure from racist voters and the surging popularity of fascism, is to make the already extremely strict asylum rules even stricter. In some cases (e.g. Denmark) refugee asylum has been all but abolished, in an egregious violation of treaties on assisting refugees (and preventing genocide).
The good news for people like Arc is that for US citizens it is overwhelmingly easier to obtain residency status legally in the EU in countries like the Netherlands, compared to getting a Green Card in the US. She probably should have figured that out before panicking and booking that flight.
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The places in the US that are safer for minorities are also the first places that will be targeted for Trump’s domestic military occupation. If you’re trans and paying attention to how things are playing out, those are the places you go to seek solidarity and fight, not to flee and seek asylum.
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If you have money, sure, but the interviewed woman left San Francisco, which is a place most people would move to, if they were trying to escape violence.
If you are not top 10% going to live in poverty in Europe probably seems more attractive than living in poverty in a blue state.
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Especially being an IT professional and going to the Netherlands. DAFT visas, which are for entrepreneurs seem to be one of the most common ways to get into the EU.
Congratulations to the far-right. You’re winning.
Problem: They would take that unironically and agree.
Well, I’m not exactly being ironic. It’s unfortunate… they’re winning.
I won’t stop fighting, and I hate that they’re winning. And I believe, as progress always does, that those of us who oppose the far right will eventually win.
I wish I could flee this shitheel country. Issue is that there’s currently nowhere progressive that accepts the US as a valid country to flee from.
same, but i’m disabled and there’s nowhere anywhere that accepts disabled anyone.
😥
I fucking hate borders, just seeing all these arbitrary lines drawn on a map, it’s so fucking infuriating.
People’s fates are determined long before they’re born, from conflicts long ago.
The only “sin” committed being born on the wrong side of a border
The wild thing is the American southwest. California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas . . . all of that was literally Mexico.
People drew imaginary lines and said “You’re an American citizen if you’re born here, but not if you’re born there”. When it’s the same goddamned people.
We call Dine people in El Paso Navajo Native Americans. We call the exact same ethnic group 20 miles south in Cuidad Mexican foreigners.
I have disabilities, too. Being trans, older, disabled, and poor is shit. It sucks being seen as the “undesirables” globally.
There are, however, lots of places where you can chain tourist visas, many of which even have a visa exemption scheme for US citizens. Some places even have “working holiday” visas that you can chain if you’re under a certain age.
You can juggle visas until the US is recognized as a place to be a refugee from, until you find a legal avenue to permanent residence (like marriage), or until you have the contacts necessary to disappear into the undocumented migrant world.
Or do you still think the US won’t get as bad as that?
I think this misses how horrifically expensive this avenue would be. I’m not trying to dismiss that this is a viable avenue for some people, but those people have more financial, social, physical, and mental capital than the majority of trans persons.
When you are given a route to asylum, you have protections and can apply for assistance. You can’t do that as a tourist.
So many of us live paycheck to paycheck and, if we sold everything that won’t fit in a suitcase, we could barely afford the plane ticket.
We have to make day-by-day analyses and weigh the options. Right now, I’m choosing a semi-stable roof over my head and saving every penny I can manage. My only alternative at this point is to choose homelessness in a foreign country, hoping that I don’t get deported back here with no means to rebuild what I’ve lost.
Being homeless and marginalized in the US is not a viable option. I’ve literally done that before.
Sure, but there are a lot of countries, which are either cheap enough to retire to or are willing to accept qualified US workers. Also a lot of Americans have some relatively recent migrant background and might apply for citizenship by decent from some countries.
Sure, but there are a lot of countries, which are either cheap enough to retire to or are willing to accept qualified US workers.
Which ones? Most of what I can find you’re good if you have a college degree or $500,000. If you don’t have one of those you’re out of luck.
That has been what I’ve found. Over 35, no degree, no savings? lol get fucked.
Best I’ve been able to find is Uruguay, but languages have always been really hard for me.
Costa Rica is also nice, and I speak some Spanish. But yes, it’s a small list.
Just took a look at Costa Rica’s residency requirements:
- Pensionado (Retiree): $1,000+/month pension.
- Rentista (Fixed Income): $2,500+/month from investments/business.
- Investor: $150,000+ investment in real estate, stocks, etc.
- Nómada Digital (Digital Nomad): $3,000+/month income from foreign sources.
Sigh…
I do think “digital nomad” options are fairly new for a number of countries and that may be my best bet. My field doesn’t really have virtual jobs, but my wife’s does.
Chaining tourist and/or work visas is also viable.
she experienced all this in San Francisco? I find that a little difficult to believe
What’s next, “she was asking for it?”
