Refugee Or Immigrant?

by Ananya S. Guha / September 24th, 2017

When you are an immigrant
it is status, illegal
when you are refugee
it is non status, status quo
you don’t know what you are
who you are
you are left to fend from bins
pick newspapers
the homes that shelter you totter
torn plastics cover your head
you are immigrant
not refugee, how dare?
(you or others call you one?)
you are Rohingyas
not Myanmarese
at best you are Bangladeshi
who also are immigrants- illegal
so you see it is full circle
this debate cause- effect- cause
but you are not refugee
you have no legal sanction
for such an honored position
in the meantime scrape dirt
and weep
nations sign treaties
you sign on sands of time.

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India, where he was born and brought up. He has been writing and publishing his poetry for the last forty years. His poetry has been published in both electronic and print formats such as: Indian Literature, Other Voices, Osprey Journal, Glasgow Review, The Literary Nest, Up The Staircase, Asia Writes, Art Arena, Praxis Online, Muse India, Your One Phone Call, In Between Hangovers, The Peeking Cat Magazine, Post Colonial Text among others. He has also written widely on educational and social matters. He has ten collections of poetry and his poetry has been anthologized in various collections of Indian poetry in English. He holds a doctoral on the novels of William Golding. Read other articles by Ananya S..

This article was posted on Sunday, September 24th, 2017 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.