I have a soft spot for Ethiopia, clearly one of the most fascinating places in the world, not just Africa. However, importing Ethiopians will hardly help solve America’s problems and will likely just give us new ones.
Under the current Regime, it is America’s fate to be the boarding house for those fleeing civil wars and chaos in their own countries. America often does much to start or continue these conflicts, rather than ending them. As with Libya, it’s reasonable to believe our rulers see social chaos and migrant waves as a deliberate objective of their foreign policy, not an unfortunate side effect.
So get ready for another wave of Failure Migration, this time from Ethiopia.
The Biden administration on Friday announced that Ethiopian nationals in the United States will become eligible to apply for work permits and deferral from deportation in light of the East African nation’s ongoing civil war.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas designated Ethiopia for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program that allows nationals of a country undergoing human-made or natural disasters to stay and work in the United States...
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) celebrated the designation, saying, “Ethiopia’s spiraling armed conflict is the exact reason why we created the TPS program.”...
With the designation, Ethiopian nationals in the United States as of Thursday will be allowed to apply for TPS protections. Ethiopian nationals who travel to the United States as of Friday are still subject to deportation.
With the designation, Ethiopia joins 15 other countries with TPS, including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Nepal and Yemen.
The Ethiopian immigrant population in the United States grew from around 10,000 people in 1980 to around 180,000 in 2014, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
[Amid civil war, Biden administration grants immigration relief to Ethiopians, by Rafael Bernal, The Hill, October 21, 2022]
Of course, this designation is likely to last forever, even if the war ends. The Ethiopian government does appear to be making progress.
”There are at least 500,000 Eritrean and Ethiopian federal troops in active combat, plus 200,000 from the Tigrayan side,” said Alex de Waal, the executive director of the US-based World Peace Foundation.
He added that after more than 50 days of non-stop fighting, this week the Tigrayan defence lines around Shire could no longer hold out because of a lack of ammunition.
”It’s a big setback for the Tigrayans. It leaves civilians exposed to massacre, rape and starvation,” Prof De Waal said, though the Ethiopian government has promised aid and the restoration of services in Shire and other areas under its control.
[Ethiopia civil war: Hyenas scavenge on corpses as Tigray forces retreat, BBC, October 19, 2022]
In fact, Ethiopia may be close to ending the war.
Tigray’s rebel authorities said Friday they would attend talks next week aimed at ending war in Ethiopia, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed fighting ”will end and peace will prevail”.
The government has also said it will participate in the negotiations in South Africa on Monday, being organised by the African Union, as diplomatic pressure mounts for a settlement to almost two years of bloodshed.
”Our delegation will attend,” Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a spokesman for the rebel authorities in Tigray, told AFP in a text message when asked if they would come to the table on October 24.
The news came ahead of a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday to discuss the spiralling conflict in Africa’s second-most populous country, and growing fears for civilians caught in the crossfire.
Ethiopia’s government this week vowed to seize airports and other federal sites in Tigray from rebel control as its army and their Eritrean allies seized towns in the war-torn region, sending civilians fleeing.
[Tigray’s Rebels Agree To Peace Talks As Ethiopia PM Vows ’End’ To War, Barron’s, October 21, 2022]
So why is this special status being implemented now? It may be because our rulers see peace as an obstacle. If there is peace, they lose a chance to important a new voting base to replace Americans. Hence, an entirely new population gets admittance to the United States, even as the supposed reason fades away.
The question is not whether The Great Replacement is taking place. The question is if the United States federal government sees its role as doing anything other than replacing Americans in the only home we’ll ever have.
