Slouching Towards Texas (If Not Bethlehem)

New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast

Anthropologist Amelia Frank-Vitale discusses what it takes to walk from Honduras to Texas, and the tragedies along the way.

Human history is a long and continuing story of migration. People have always moved out of fear or out of opportunity—and other people have always resisted them. That story continues today: as more people try to flee war, climate extremes and poverty, more walls get built, boats sunk, caravans disrupted, and refugees pushed back.

Aren't we supposed to be better than that in the 21st century? After all, we have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN 1951 Refugee Convention, asylum rights enshrined in national laws in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, and endless media coverage of suffering, scared refugees and migrants calculated to evoke sympathy and empathy.

But the long lines are still there; few make it to the safety they seek. Why?

Amelia Frank-Vitale is an anthropologist with years of experience studying migration in Honduras and Mexico. She's also an activist who's interested in the migrants as people, not as plaintiffs or pawns in a political drama. Listen as she discusses what it takes to walk from Honduras to Texas, and the tragedies along the way.

Do you think your country should allow more migrants and whether you would welcome them to your neighborhood?