It’s time for leaders and citizens in all developed countries — from the U.S. to Europe, Asia and Australia — to ask themselves wrenching questions about migration. Answering honestly will take us far out of our comfort zones, challenging the way we define ourselves as individuals and societies.
Here’s an opening question: Are Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, the Republican governors of Texas and Florida, moral analogs to Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus, or Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the strongman president of Turkey?
That may seem far-fetched, but it isn't. Lukashenko and Erdogan have used some of the most vulnerable human beings in the world — refugees from the Middle East — as pawns in their games against perceived political enemies in the European Union. Erdogan has prodded migrants to cross Turkey’s land and sea borders with Greece. Lukashenko has flown refugees to Belarus before herding them toward Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
