OUT OF FOCUS: THE MIGRANT JOURNEY

Abstract

This article briefly touches upon the debate about whether the conditions of the 1951 Geneva Convention are too restrictive in so far as they limit the definition of the refugee to a specific fear of persecution. It asks questions about whether those fleeing from poverty, material and environmental degradation, and profound social disadvantage should also be considered alongside those with a claim to political refugee status. Richmond’s typology of ‘reactive migration’ demonstrated the inadequacy of existing criteria which surround the refugee situation and, with this in mind, the article examines two cultural texts – both graphic novels but with very different styles – which feature migrants, one, on the surface, an economic migrant, the other an asylum seeker who fled from ‘a genuine fear of persecution. Although the protagonists in both texts face quite different challenges, they both suffer from a profound ontological insecurity.