Europe, particularly Germany, invited them in, which in turn created a larger mass migration. France closed its border within minutes of the attack. Denmark, Hungary, Austria and others closed their borders well before the attack. They only pass through Greece.
The U. S. has given more monetary aid to the refugees, some 30% of the total, than any other country.
The actual closing of the border was not executed very well. Reports said traffic on the autoroutes were not even stopped at the German border.
@katliamom, I think this is hysterical fear masked with testosterone-fueled bullying. Putting your hands over your eyes and singing loudly will not make the bogeyman go away…if he is real. ISIS, alas, is real.
I think that people should stop and think about the internment of Japanese citizens and residents. Yes, Japan had attacked us. Yes, there were probably a very few individuals among them that were or would be willing to be recruited to spy or perform acts of sabotage. Just like the population with German or Italian ancestry–there was, after all, the German American Bund–who of course were not rounded up, possibly because, well, they were LIKE US?
I’m sure the people who perpetrated that claimed that they were just taking sensible safety measures and were thinking analytically.
Equally ludicrous were the German Jewish refugees in the UK who were rounded up and imprisoned as enemy aliens. Hello? Jews?? Actually, they were just like the millions fleeing ISIS. I’m sure it would have ben perfectly possible for the Nazis to slip in an agent or two in disguise as a Jewish refugee. You can’t be too safe! /sarcasm.
But I’m fine with not letting in any single men between the ages of 12 and 59. There are enough women and children languishing in the refugee camps to fill our quota.
ETA: I would suggest that “young men of military age” who don’t want to live in a refugee camp indefinitely be offered the opportunity to join some kind of organized force fighting ISIS.
The reality is we should be much more concerned with ISIS targeting our disenfranchised. Heck even the European converts are more dangerous than the refugees.
These kinds of attacks require the planners to be intimately familiar with the neighborhoods. The French terrorists were almost all homegrown.
I think you are exactly right.
I’ve been reading about the situation in Sweden and I think they are having a logistical nightmare.
“I really doubt you’ll look kindly to any country that bans you from seeking refuge within its borders.”
Is anyone here suggesting a total ban on all refugees? I’m certainly not. Heck, send me a kid! I have actually had migrants from other countries living in my house for various periods of time, as I’ve posted before. Anyone else have that experience personally?
If the US, which has a population of 320 million, takes 10,000 refugees or even 65,000 refugees, we won’t have a logistical nightmare, though. Sweden’s getting something like 200,000 refugees, and they’ve got a population of less than ten million. It’s not comparable. We have room for 10,000 more people without cracking a sweat.
CardinalFang, just to be clear. You made that comparison, I didn’t. I was just making an observation about something I found noteworthy. My actual train of thought was “its 42 degrees here today and I’m freezing. What are the refugees who are being housed in tents in Sweden going to do?”
Nobody wants to help those ****%#!?
“Background Briefing On Refugee Screening and Admissions”
http://m.state.gov/md249613.htm
I am finding this informative.
Right. I made the comparison, zoosermom. We in the US should not fear that we would be unable, logistically, to take in 10,000 refugees over the course of a year.
[As a public service, I’ll describe Zeldie’s NSFW YouTube link. It’s an Australian reacting to the Paris attacks. He says that ISIL’s own propaganda explains how ISIL wants its terrorism to drive a wedge between Muslims and everyone else. They want us to reject Muslims, pushing them into the warm waiting arms of ISIL. He urges that we not play along with their murderous game.]
Like I said, playing right by ISIL’s playbook. That’s what a lot of people on this thread, in the US and the world are doing right this minute. They have us pegged - and so far, way too many are proving ISIL correct.
The aspect that’s being very under-prioritized in all this is the impact on the locals. If the argument is that immigration helps the locals, then it would be far better for it to be controlled by the citizens and pick the people admitted based on what the needs are. History has shown a very poor assimilation rate in Europe, leading to large disenfranchised populations who become easy targets for groups like ISIS.
The citizens of both Europe and the US would be far better served if people fleeing the battle zones were kept in areas close to their country so that when the situation stabilizes, there isn’t an issue of not wanting to go back because of economic reasons, and there’ll be far fewer people in the first place since many of the current group are coming primarily for economic reasons.
“Is anyone here suggesting a total ban on all refugees”
I honestly can’t recall if anyone on this thread has suggested that, but one only has to turn on the news and hear it being said by many people. Even about young children.
I honestly don’t know what has happened to our country. It’s just shameful.
“and there’ll be far fewer people in the first place since many of the current group are coming primarily for economic reason.”
Say what? They are coming to escape the violence in their country.
Fareed Zakaria has a special on CNN focused on ISIS at 9PM ET tonight. It’s entitled The ISIS Propaganda Machine. I usually find his reporting insightful and balanced. I figured I’d mention it here in case anyone else might want to watch it.
France DID NOT close its borders. It established passport controls at its borders, which is TOTALLY different. Refugees without passports and tourists/visitors with passports are all welcome. (Refugees are then sent to centers to be processed). The ONLY people for whom it makes a difference are EU nationals travelling from Turkey without passports (in other words: returning from Syria).
Denmark and Austria have not ‘closed their borders’, they’ve established checkpoints since there were none.
I’d like to note I mentioned Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon as the countries where 95% refugees have relocated. However, I hadn’t thought of either Turkey or Lebanon as Arab countries. For Turkey, I’m not sure it is considered/considers itself an Arab country? For Lebanon, I should have, due to Sykes-Picot, but my friends there always (rather vehemently) refer to it as different from Arab States like Saudi Arabia or Oman or even Jordan.
I guess I should just have said “Gulf States”, so I apologize if I created confusion.
Japan is not taking any Syrian refugees nor China either IIRC.
“Economic reasons” do not qualify people to come to the US as refugees. Obviously many people try to come to the US for economic reasons, and many do come, but they don’t come as refugees. In this thread we’re discussing admitting refugees from the Syrian civil war, the horrible, brutal, eleven-sided civil war.