Internal
violence in Syria has displaced millions of individuals including children.
These people are left without a home and essentially stripped of their basic
needs at no fault of their own. Thus far, the surrounding countries such as
Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and North Africa have taken in a significant
portion of refugees. Nearly 12.5 million Syrians are displaced, including those
still in Syria, those in the countries mentioned above, and those seeking
asylum in Europe.[1]
While many countries have taken welcomed refugees in with open arms there are a
great number more who are unwilling to host them primarily for security
reasons, both national and ontological.
While any new addition to a state is
likely to cost more money, the world must act in order to help shelter
individuals who have been displaced by internal turmoil. They did not ask to be
displaced and should not be met with cynicism. I recognize that there are a lot
of aspects a country must consider when deciding whether to admit refugees or
not, I believe it is the duty of able countries to provide assistance to those
who need in times of humanitarian crisis as we are seeing in Syria. That being
said the EU along with the rest of the able world including the United States
who generally speaking have the capabilities to provide the basic necessities
for refugees should do so, currently there is not enough being done on behalf
of the world community.
I recognize that each country is
different and has its own set of unique challenges that need to be accommodated.
I am not advocating for the flood of Syrians into countries with no control
over admittance. Rather, I am arguing that every able country, those who have
the financial means, should be taking in refugees but doing so at an amount that
they can handle. By this I mean an amount that they can adequately take care
all the while still providing for their citizens and the country as a whole. All
in all more can be done to ensure basic human rights are protected for those
who need it as in the Syrian crisis.
[1] "Key Facts about the World’s Refugees | Pew Research
Center." Accessed October 24, 2016.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/05/key-facts-about-the-worlds-refugees/.
I believe that countries should be accepting in refugees, however this is purely from my social justice advocate mental thought. I think that countries have a lot to consider, more than just the idea that these people were displaced not by their own accord. Countries just accepting people as they come does not mean countries are helping these people assimilate and become active citizens in the communities there are placed in. There are just allowing them to be there, to come in and figure it out for themselves. This does not help the refugees and does not help the countries.
ReplyDeleteI agree that countries with strong economies should host more refugees or contribute more efforts to help the displaced people because they are still human beings. One exception to this is what about the homeless people struggling to already live in a country? In other words, the United States has just under 50,000 homeless veterans alone. In my opinion, the American government needs to address this problem where its own citizens who have sacrificed and put their life on the line to defend its freedoms needs to make sure they can return home to proper care, a home, and a loving community before offering support and care for foreign refugees. Obviously accepting the refugees is not the same as integrating and assimilating them into society, but it still requires funding, initiatives, and legislation. I agree with your statement that accepting any refugee or offering any aid helps in some way, but I think, in cases such as the United States', it has an obligation to help its veterans before accepting a significant amount of refugees
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you Meghan. However, I do see Joseph's point as well. Should these refugees be prioritized over citizens/veterans? I think it would be massively difficult to get Congress to allocate funding for the integration of refugees before funding programs to get homeless veterans on the street. The issue really comes down to prioritized spending. Maybe some of our more than $500 billion defense budget should be used to implement these new programs to secure a smooth transition for refugees. Maybe we should allocate a budget for the medical care and reintegration of veterans while determining a war budget. The problem is also that Congress can't get its act together to find immediate solutions, let alone long term ones. But, in a nonpartisan, well thought out political sphere, you couldn't be more correct. We should be doing more. We actually should be embarrassed by how little we can do to help people because we're so busy bickering among ourselves.
ReplyDelete