The world migrant population continues to rise–clocked at 281 million in what is still the last (2020) U.N. measure. There’s no reason to think it hasn’t grown since. The causes are well known: escape from tyranny, fear of persecution, hunger (literal, or for a better life), and physical exposure or danger. Often the last of these is brought on by wars that other people choose–or feel honor-bound–to fight. This is what a weekend article in the Wall Street Journal shows has brought tens of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians to unlikely destinations: Brazil and Argentina. (Of course, many more have fled the home-front’s killing and military drafts by seeking more proximate refuges.) Entry and work opportunities, as well as distance from reminders of what awaits any return, help to explain their trek across ocean and hemisphere. But this odd tale speaks to what has always been a lesser-told aspect of men’s battles: their casualties have included displacement. In modern times, America’s wars haven’t reached its continental shores, so the flight has been mostly from conscription. The Vietnam War produced perhaps 40,000 “dodgers” to handy Canada alone. Significant previous wars saw less-recognized refugees, going back to the Revolution (Loyalists) and the Civil War (on both sides). Patriotic fervor as in the two world wars might keep the numbers low for awhile, and favored sorts often find ways to insulate themselves in conflict, but before long mass slaughter drives people to uproot themselves. The silver lining, which may be true in Brazil and Argentina, is that those who shrink from war can grow to enrich both themselves and the lands that receive them.
War Has a Way of Inspiring Migration
Tim W. Ferguson 