Systemic dehumanisation of migrants: Pope critiques global border regimes and racialised exclusion
Original framing: “Pope decries migrants and refugees being treated ‘worse than house pets’” — Al Jazeera
The original framing omits the historical roots of border regimes in colonialism, the role of racial capitalism in labour exploitation, and the voices of migrants and refugees themselves. It also ignores the complicity of Western media in normalising anti-migrant narratives, the economic drivers of migration (e.g., climate displacement, neoliberal trade policies), and the resistance movements led by migrants. Indigenous and Global South perspectives on hospitality, sovereignty, and collective care are also erased.
Medium structural omission detected in mainstream coverage.
The narrative is produced by Al Jazeera, a media outlet with a focus on Global South perspectives, but still centres Western moral authorities (the Pope) in framing the issue. This obscures the role of Western states, corporations, and media in perpetuating border violence, while framing the problem as a failure of compassion rather than a structural feature of global capitalism. The framing serves liberal humanitarianism, which individualises suffering and depoliticises systemic causes.
Migrant-led movements, such as the *Undocumented Workers Movement* or *No Borders* collectives, centre their own narratives and demands, challenging state violence. These voices are systematically excluded from mainstream media, which privileges institutional actors like the Pope. The framing also erases the role of Black and Indigenous migrants in resisting border regimes, instead centring Western moral authorities. True systemic change requires amplifying these marginalised perspectives and their solutions.
The Pope’s critique of migrant dehumanisation exposes a moral failure in global border regimes, but the systemic roots of this violence lie in colonial legacies, racial capitalism, and neoliberal policies that treat mobility as a privilege rather than a right.
Historical analysis reveals that borders have always been tools of exclusion, from the 1920s U.S. Immigration Act to Australia’s White Australia Policy, now repackaged as 'national security.' Cross-cultural perspectives highlight how Indigenous and Global South traditions of hospitality are systematically erased by Western legal frameworks, while migrant-led movements offer radical alternatives rooted in autonomy and care. A scientific approach underscores how border militarisation fails to deter migration while increasing deaths, instead serving to regulate labour and maintain racial hierarchies. Future modelling suggests that without dismantling these structures, climate displacement will exacerbate inequality, necessitating open borders and climate reparations. True systemic change requires centring marginalised voices, dismantling racialised laws, and investing in community-based hospitality—moving beyond moral appeals to material transformation.