The Westgate shooting was an incident that immediately resulted in shaken relations between the Kenyan government and Somali refugees in Kenya. Officials are considering removing the refugee camps; their reasoning is that "some of these facilities are being used as a training ground" (Kenyan `MPs 'to demand Somali refugee camps closures'). Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group based in Somalia that has links with Al-Qaeda. The shooters in the Westgate shooting are said to have connections with the aforementioned militant organizations.
As paralleled with the stereotype that ensued after 9/11 of Muslims being militant extremists, the WestGate shooting deemed all Somalis as rouge thugs. Consequently, more measures have been proposed in Kenya's government to heighten boarder patrol.
The knowledge issue at hand is the extent to which preconceived notions about a specific ethnic group contribute to boarder control?
Although it is true that the amount of crime that follows certain group is a contributing factor to how stringent a border is, this creates room for generalizing. For example, in the United States, once the issue of legal documentation in the Hispanic community arose, so did the issue of crime This was one contributing factor, among others, that perpetuated the stereotype of Hispanics are crime inducing illegals.
Similarly, in Kenya, and at the national level, Somalians are being viewed as terrorists who could be arriving in the form of refugees.
Each nation has the right of securing safety, but it is vital to ask if the increased need for safety is fueld out of genuine concern or preconceived notions about a certain group of people.
Interesting post. I definitely agree with you, but I have a question though about the legal documentation in the Hispanic community, so your saying that America was wrong when it wanted to document all the Hispanics living in the US because it created a rise in crime? Considering the problem with weak borders and illegal immigrants, America kind of had no choice. Or do you mean that legal documentation in the Hispanic community was brought up with the issue of crime?
ReplyDeleteWhat I was trying to convey is the fact that once security is threatened by a certain group of people, the danger not just only extends to the actual perpetrators of the crime(s), but to innocent civilians who happen to 'fit' a certain stereotype.
ReplyDeleteIn the Hispanic community, they face profiling; in southern states, they are more likely to get stopped/searched by police for 'raising suspicion' of being illegal in the same way blacks are likely to get searched for looking 'threatening'.