“Pushback” describes the pushing back of refugees to borders. This glossed over an inhuman process, says the jury for the bad word of the year – and puts it in first place.
We can speak of a surprise winner. Corona had once again determined numerous discourses in 2021 and produced many new terms. “Pushback”, however, is the bad word of the year 2021 and thus directs attention to European refugee policy. It describes the pushing back of refugees at the borders to their destination or transit country without those affected being able to exercise their rights, such as filing an asylum application. “Pushback” received the negative award on Wednesday, “because it glossed over an inhumane process that deprives people on the move of exercising the human and fundamental right to asylum,” said the jury of the language critical on Wednesday Action that has been the unword of the year since the 1990s.
The criticism of “pushbacks” is not new: According to human rights organizations and critics: “Pushbacks” violate the Geneva Refugee Convention or the European Convention on Human Rights. In particular, in reports on the European “isolationist policy”, as the refugee policy is sometimes called, the term has recently been used frequently – the most current example is the treatment of refugees on the border between Poland and Belarus. Amnesty International criticizes “pushbacks” by people seeking protection at the EU’s external borders, but also in Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, France, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.
What is new is the criticism of the term “pushback” itself due to the fact that it became the unword of the year. “A fair asylum procedure is withheld from the refugees and the use of the expression pushback does not make it clear,” criticized jury member Constanze Spieß in an interview with the FR. The linguist says that the term is often used to hide the fact that it is often about violent acts that could even result in the death of those seeking protection.
In their statement, the jury also criticized the fact that the term was used without reflection both in the media and by critics of “pushbacks”. But which expression could one use alternatively? “That is very difficult because the description of this behavior cannot be reduced to a single term,” says Spieß. “And if you have such a crisp term in the media landscape, you are of course very happy to use it.” In addition to criticizing the EU’s actions, the choice of words can also be viewed as a scolding at politicians, journalists and organizations who make their contribution have done to solidify the term in parlance.
The jury’s choice may seem surprising, as the term has been used for several years. But that is not unusual, explains Spieß: “We noticed that it was used relatively often in discourses over the past year. The term was used a lot in debates about European external borders and the problems in Belarus and Poland. ”Originally, the term in English and American stands for pushing an aircraft back on the tarmac. In English it is also used to reject verbal attacks. Even the linguist on the jury cannot determine exactly from when the term will be used in the context of migration in German-speaking countries.
Second place on the inglorious winners podium of the Unwort jury for 2021 was the “language police”. This would defame people who advocate “an appropriate, fairer and non-discriminatory use of language that linguistically includes previously disadvantaged and marginalized groups”, the press release says on the choice of words. The jury rated the term as “misleading because it suggests that there is an executive body that ‘watches’ over compliance with the language rules and provides penalties for ‘non-compliance’.”
The jury awarded third place to an entire language complex: comparisons with National Socialism. Many will still remember how a young woman compared herself to Sophie Scholl on a “lateral thinker” demo in 2020. The jury had received many submissions from citizens who would have liked one of the comparisons of protesters against measures to restrict corona with National Socialism as the bad word of the year. This emerges from the message from the jury. This refers to terms like “vaccination Nazi”, “Enabling Act” instead of Infection Protection Act or the imprint “unvaccinated” on a yellow star. “This is where these comparisons are misused because they play down National Socialism and ridicule the victims of the National Socialist dictatorship,” says Spieß. “There is often a victim-perpetrator reversal. We also have the impression that this increases with demonstrations. “
Finally, the personal bad word of the guest juror and journalist Harald Schumann – the “military strike” – was explicitly mentioned. According to the jury’s criticism, this is a “euphemistic term for an aggressive warlike act”. If bombs, rockets and tanks are used and, in the worst case, civilian casualties are to be mourned, then it is a question of war – not a few blows.
As with the term “pushback”, the jury emphasized the term “military strike”, which has been used for a long time and which conceals something instead of naming it.
