The West and The Refugee Crisis

As refugees flood into Europe from the war-torn Middle East and Northern Africa, European Union (EU) countries have long confronted a billion-dollar question: Who will take them in?  Currently, the countries that have taken in the most refugees are Turkey (at 1.9 million) and Lebanon (at 1.1 million). Turkey shelters more than half of the Syrian refugees, and Lebanon’s population has increased 25 percent due to refugees. Not surprisingly, both Lebanon and Turkey border Syria.  Needless to say, these countries and others who have taken in the refugees are completely overwhelmed by their numbers. These refugees, who mostly lack any personal belongings, seek asylum in EU countries like Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Germany is expecting an estimate of 800,000 applications for asylum from refugees this year, and it has stated that it will take as many as it possibly can—maybe around 500,000. France is also trying to share the burden and has pledged to take in 24,000 refugees.But what are we in the United States doing about the refugee crisis?  For many of us, the problem is so far removed that the images on television become simply another reality television show. Despite news images circulated worldwide of a drowned three-year old Syrian refugee washed up on a beach in Turkey, the shock of the West at seeing those images has not brought about the necessary action by Western governments needed to solve this “refugee crisis.” Despite the horrific images and news stories, the problem remains “unreal” to many of us here in the United States. We are not living daily with homeless refugee families starving in the streets of our towns. Without the realization by our citizens that the crisis has reached epic proportions, our country will continue to do little but pay lip service to the need for more humanitarian relief efforts.What exactly is our country doing? How many refugees are we, the United States, committing to accept? Over the span of the entire conflict in Syria, we have taken in about 1,800 refugees. Are we doing our share? It does not seem so. And there are many in Europe, the Middle East and our own country who see the refugee crisis as a direct result of the United States’ invasion of Iraq—and the resulting growth of anti-American sentiments in the Middle East. For our part, the White House has said that we will take in 10,000 more refugees this fiscal year; however, very little action has been taken to welcome those refugees here, and the welcoming of only 10,000 refugees is a small and ineffective bandage for the wound that is growing each day.There is also a backlash—starting in Europe but growing in the United States as well—against allowing thousands of refugees to enter our countries. As those opponents claim, “We have enough problems of our own, right?” One of the most significant complaints is that these refugees will take jobs away from native citizens. For example, France’s unemployment rate is steady at 10.3 percent and Turkey’s unemployment rate is 9.6 percent compared to our 5.1 percent. Another common complaint is that the refugees who enter the Western countries will become a burden on those already faltering economies, as the refugees seek government assistance for food, housing, clothing and education. These complaints, however, are not based on truth.  Many of these refugees are educated and skilled laborers who are ready (and willing) to work and build a new life for their families. The idea that these people are leaving their countries to seek a hand-out in the West is not only insulting to them, but it also ignores the facts that have caused this crisis as well as the identities the refugees.In the end, our country must return to its basic principles and the notion that we, and all United States citizens, are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. We must act on the words on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We must ensure that we as a people live up to the ideals set forth by our Founders and their descendants. Our Western governments—and their citizens—must commit to a plan to assist those who are fleeing tyranny and violence, and we must do so with more than words and useless expressions of sorrow for the plight of those who are literally fleeing for their lives. Only when we take these actions do we live up to the ideals of our democracy.