Deeper Histories of Immigration - #5 Project M

🕵‍♂️ A while ago I started reading the declassified docs from the secretive WWII “M Project” started by the US government in 1940-1941.

We can learn much from this project about governmental (here mainly US) thinking about "solving" the "refugee problem."

So here are some insights from these documents:

The goal of the M Project was to create a “master geopolitical plan for the relocation of Refugees” after WWII through making decisions informed by studies by leading anthropologists, geologists and diplomats who reported directly to President Roosevelt.

Refugees were divided into 3 groups:
1️⃣ "Victims of war"
2️⃣ “Surplus populations”
3️⃣ “Geopolitical problem children” (i.e. minorities that can cause "political trouble")

Definitions of refugees are not all made equal 😡 . If you're still not convinced of that, hear what "leading minds" working for the US government said:

“Refugees with technical training were desirable immigrants; those untrained or untrainable a potential burden.”

❗ It would seem that a major objective FDR had for M Project was to effectively resettle European refugees to North Africa, South Asia, Middle East, and elsewhere in the world (this included resettling Jewish refugees, unrestricted, to Palestine, and only in small numbers elsewhere) – yep, where there were already people.

Why?

Because, he said, “I want to make North Africa the granary of Europe…Technicians will be recruited from the displaced persons [from Europe].” 😬

Okay, why?

Well, FDR said, better to make these refugees settler colonizers than bums in Europe - if they stay in Europe the US would be “doling out billions for doing nothing.”

And you’d want these refugees to settle permanently, FDR continued, by encouraging them to bring their family, by building advanced desalination plants, irrigation technology, etc. to increase arable land.

🙄 Settler-colonial fantasizing much?

The Project estimated that it would cost around 25 billion 💰 (478 billion 💰 today) to resettle 1 million families.

🚀 It even addressed a future option - basically Star Trek/Star Wars 👽 : “Interstellar Migration,” yep send people to colonized Venus or Mars or find planets with life - but maybe I'll address that later...

Officially, none of this was implemented, and the project died by the time Truman took over. But I don't know, a lot of these ideas seem to still haunt major powers in their search for "solutions"... ☠