Yesterday, the British media at large made a dramatic U-turn. After years of pushing aggressive and insensitive attitudes towards migrants of all kinds, the death of one small boy - an image thrust right into face of people across the UK - has produced a dramatic volte face (Wintour, 2015).
Suddenly, the reality of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria and by the other ongoing conflicts in North Africa - such as in Libya and Iraq - was out in the open. These people were no longer dehumanised 'immigrants' out to steal jobs. They were human beings again, terrified strangers fleeing for their lives.
With the apparent shift in public opinion represented by the change in the media's tone, David Cameron's Premiership is suddenly under substantial pressure (Wintour, 2015{2}). While Cameron has stood resolutely aloof, governments across Europe have at times creaked with the strain and ordinary people have taken the responsibility upon themselves to save lives and to shelter them (Duffy, 2015; Moore, 2015).
The shift in the media tone may well be the signal for the government to now alter its policy with regards to the crisis - in particular accepting more of the refugees from Syria. But, behind the present crisis, there is a dangerous matter just as large that the shift in tone may begin to address. And that is the dehumanisation that has crept into public attitudes over the last decade (Kingsley, 2015).
Those attitudes, of reducing human beings to crude caricatures based on simplistic, grim and derogatory terms, posed as much of a threat to the internal workings of British society as it did to outsiders unfortunate enough to cross paths with it. It turns people cold towards outsiders of all kinds - including the least fortunate in their own communities, who find themselves suffering from cruel stigmas and draconian crackdowns in addition to poverty and homelessness (Sparkes, 2015).
Hopefully - and it should be stressed that this is hope - this one tragedy, and the sudden stark turning point it has made possible, can at least have a decisive impact and force a step forward in the recognition of our common humanity.
References
Patrick Wintour's 'Migration crisis: new public mood poses dilemma for Cameron'; in The Guardian; 3 September 2015.
Patrick Wintour's 'Migration crisis: pressure mounts on Cameron over refugees'; in The Guardian; 3 September 2015{2}.
Bernie Duffy's 'Finding a refugee in my basement was a wake-up call to the crisis'; in The Guardian; 2 September 2015.
Suzanne Moore's 'The grassroots response to the refugee crisis should shame the British government'; in The Guardian; 2 September 2015.
Patrick Kingsley's 'Philip Hammond grossly overstates the problem of 'marauding' migrants'; in The Guardian; 10 August 2015.
Jon Sparkes' 'Councils should help rough sleepers, not fine them'; in The Guardian; 3 June 2015.
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