A Humanitarian Opportunity Known as the Global Refugee Crisis

By Clifford J. Shultz, II, PhD, Professor & Charles H. Kellstadt Chair of Marketing, Loyola University Chicago

The global refugee crisis is one of the most daunting challenges confronting humanity. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports more than 82 million refugees and other forcibly displaced persons (collectively categorized as FDP) have fled their homes, communities and countries. Climate change, war and other forces could explode that number to 1.2 billion people by 2050. That growing catastrophe is inhumane and unsustainable. We desperately need a more humanitarian solution. This crisis must be revisited as a humanitarian opportunity.

The words “opportunity,” “refugees” and “forced displacement” may seem incompatible or even repellent. The following thoughts -- derived from decades of field-research studying FDP, with research teams on six continents -- may be useful as we seek to end, or at least mitigate the crisis, by seizing humanitarian opportunities in it.

We must first understand that FDP are uniquely vulnerable people on a dynamic pathway precipitated by trigger events that have disrupted or fractured systems supplying goods, services and experiences requisite for safety, meaning and joy. This disruption and subsequent displacement typically result in dangerous journeys to temporary or permanent settlements, where FDP are often ignored, marginalized or violated. Familiar life-sustaining or life-enriching goods, services and experiences are absent or inadequate.

Human behavior is largely responsible for the crisis. Violence, war and deliberate destruction of life-sustaining marketing systems are human behaviors resulting from human decisions, choices and policies. Environmental events – floods, earthquakes, drought – become human disasters because of poverty, corruption, disenfranchisement and powerlessness, which make people especially vulnerable when nature strikes.

FDP disenfranchisement is symptomatic of social traps. To privileged populations, FDP may appear to be among the obvious “others”. But, in fact, those in privileged populations who enjoy stability and safety, do so while paying for wars, rather than healthcare and education that benefit us all, and contribute to environmental degradation from which we will all suffer. Thus, it would seem that populations who are not forcibly displaced should have a responsibility to assist FDP and to rebuild the places and institutions blown-up, collapsed, flooded or degraded. A failure to intervene -- to behave -- in this way would be another social trap. That is, such failure might provide short-term cost-savings, but it would come at the greater cost of suffering through perpetual crises and potentially existential threats. Indeed, the “trap” is eventually sprung on all of us, if everyone does not recognize the opportunity to act more humanely, to intervene and to eliminate ongoing policies– e.g., war, carbon emissions -- that result in more forced displacement.

The crisis is systemically complex, over time and space; solutions must be systemic and address needs of multiple stakeholders, over time and space. Any trigger event likely resulted from numerous interactions among political, economic, cultural and ecological factors. We must acquire a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the factors that comprise a system, and ways to manage those factors and relationships in the best interests of FDP, of course, but also in the best long-term interests of myriad stakeholders dependent on the system – truly, all of us.

FDP have needs not only to survive but to thrive, and to contribute to communities where they reside. Their needs moreover evolve, including meaning and fulfilment, and connection to the society in which they find themselves or hope to find themselves. For those otherwise focused on business and costs, they are a good investment. Prosocial and welcoming governments, NGOS, private-sector businesses must engage them constructively, in a predictable and provisioning marketing system; they must make, market and literally deliver the goods, from food, shelter and water to computers, smart phones, and learning/training centers, so that FDP can and will have the opportunities to be fulfilled as contributing members of society, and perhaps, even beacons for people in places to which they cannot return.

The global refugee crisis is a bellwether for the state of humanity and the distresses we are inflicting on our planet. In this sense, this crisis presents an opportunity to do better, to enhance community, to restore our humanity and to heal our planet. Seizing that humanitarian opportunity in the forms of constructive engagement – tangible, nurturing behaviors – via sustainable, just, inclusive and provisioning systems is paramount, to ensure well-being.

Article details

The Global Refugee Crisis: Pathway for a More Humanitarian Solution

By Clifford Shultz, Andrés Barrios, Alexander V. Krasnikov, Ingrid Becker, Aronté M. Bennett, Renu Emile, Maria Hokkinen, Julia R. Pennington, Marcos Santos, Jaime Sierra

First Published January 13, 2020 Research Article

Journal of Macromarketing

https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146719896390

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