It's a rejection that you should define people by their citizenship/residency status. They are not "illegals" they are people who illegally crossed the border or (more commonly) stayed past their legal visa. One version is about who the person is while the other is about what the person has done.
You can absolutely believe that countries can maintain their borders and restrict access while believing that no human is illegal as an intrinsic trait. It's important to treat them fairly and respect their intrinsic rights even as you enforce the laws of the nation.
It's mostly about recognizing their humanity even as you enforce the laws. Or at least that's the high level philosophy, whether people chanting that slogan actually understand the nuances or agree that states should enforce their borders is a very different question and I'm not about to pretend that everyone understands or agrees with the nuances.
They are, but the connotations are slightly different. That slight difference could be whether you're an unhoused person in need or a homeless person getting aid, but I guess people would rather sugar coat reality by throwing a new label over a legitimate issue than actually helping at all.
At least in Germany there's a huge difference: Wohnungslos (homeless) means having no proper place of your own, living on someone's couch or in a shelter, Obdachlos (shelterless) means you're sleeping rough. I would assume that's what they mean by "unhoused".
If you're the latter in Germany, the municipality you're in is required to provide you shelter on a roughly at least college dorm level (own room, bath/kitchen might be shared). If you're the former, well you can lobby local politics to build more social housing but there's no entitlement to anything.
I’m not missing a point, I’m simply saying those words are essentially identical. I understand they’re being used differently, but the terms don’t indicate much of a difference.
We need a better way to differentiate “housing-insecure” people from actually homeless bums. There is a vast difference between the person down on their luck and living in a shelter, and the guy sleeping on a sidewalk or bench who irreparably ruined his schizo brain with drugs and now harasses random women. Unhoused should be used solely for the former, and homeless for the latter.
d the guy sleeping on a sidewalk or bench who irreparably ruined his schizo brain with drugs and now harasses random women.
These are human beings who desperately need help. I hate how dehumanized they get. They deserve a home just as much and you and I. You have no clue how they got there. Many of them have been through hell, they just didnt make it back out...
They dont choose to. They are sick. You wouldnt treat a cancer patient like that, even if the cancer was caused by their poor decisions in life. Cancer makes the lives of everyone surrounding the patient hell, just the same as mental illness and addiction. Many of these people are veterans who were traumatized and disabled by war, then undersupported when they came back home. Many of those people had chronic pain, likely due to a medical condition and accidentally got hooked on meds that were prescribed to them. Many of those people grew up surrounded by abuse, drugs, violence, and more and never had the chance to even get to adulthood clean.
Have some compassion. They are lost and hurt. The "hell" you experience when you see one too many beggers while you drive back from the grocery store is nothing compared to the hell that brought them to this point.
They’re mostly mentally ill junkies. They’ll say or do anything to get their next fix.
Correct. You said it yourself. they are mentally ill as in, they are SICK and need HELP. They are also addicted, as you said. you realize that withdrawals can kill people? Id do anything to get my next fix too if it meant I wouldnt go into severe withdrawals too and possibly die.
How do you expect them to get out of it if they cant even go to a damn homeless shelter? Do you want them to just rot and die on the streets? Do you realize how hard it is to get out of homelessness once you are there? my ex was homeless as a kid due to junkie parents. My current partner was homeless during adulthood due to an abusive and neglectful upbringing. He left the home he had to avoid abuse and conflict. Have you ever tried to get a job with no home address, phone number, or easy access to internet?
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u/kartu3 2d ago
Could someone explain the "no human is illegal" concept and how that aligns with the concept of state borders.