The refugee crisis is exacerbated by the lack of action by Syria’s direct neighbors.
Any blame you want to put on the US is secondary to the blame of those who share cultural and religious ties with the Syrian population.
While accurate in general, I do think an adjective is missing in this statement.
There is a logical question that arises out this statement - Why should foreigners be allowed full participation in Gulf States’ civil society if the foreigners do not want to adopt the specific Gulf States’ civil society standards of the country they immigrate to?
My squash partner in 1984 was a Saudi, and we had many a discussion abut the Middle East. He said point blank that they (the Saudis) knew that the only way to preserve Saudi culture is to not permit others the opportunity to try and to change it, as the immigrants rarely changed their ways once arriving. Kind of had to argue with that logic - they want to continue being who they are. The other Gulf States have a similar view.
And this is why his sisters, who drove here in the US, had no problem not being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia (SA); they too wanted to preserve the culture. It was kind of funny because they said to me a couple times that at home they would be punished if people knew I came over to the house as a lone unrelated male, while waiting for my squash partner. However, they would never do that in SA, and they were just fine with it being that way.
@zoosermom Re: Hungary. Central/Eastern Europe is notoriously xenophobic and racist. You guys would not believe the hysteria that this immigrant crisis has sparked. Calls for the reopening of gas ovens in former concentration camps, etc. Widespread belief that there will be mass rapes across the land. It’s sick. I truly pity the poor immigrants who will be settled there. They have zero chance of any kind of decent lives there.
Denmark has closed its border to the migrants also. Trying to maintain stability in a country is not xenophobic. Neither is fear of overburdening your countries resources.
I understand your pity and any hostility is not humane. However, I do side with the Hungarian people who understand, by seeing what has happened to France, England, and the Netherlands, that these immigrants have no desire to share in, adopt, and become part of Hungarian culture. I understand Hungary not wanting similar balkanization of its country.
To show a slightly different side, remember that for years fairly substantial numbers of migrants have been fleeing Africa and drowning in the Mediterranean. Others have gone by land up into Egypt - where, believe me, they have not been welcomed in any way - and now 60,000 or so are in Israel. That is also causing problems. There has been a huge shift of populations occurring and now growing because so many parts of the world are an economic and safety disaster. Put aside cultural restrictions, freedom, etc.: people flee poverty and violence.
@awcntdb
I also wouldn’t want to adapt the values of a country where a vocal percentage of the population wants to put me in a gas oven!
Assimilation and acculturation is a 2-way street.
A good example of this is immigrants from Asia. They actually keep much of their native culture, but adopt, and practice fundamental American values. Same for Asians in France, as I knew many when I lived there.
It is not xenophobic to want to preserve one’s culture, since cultural practices is often intertwined with and synonymous with social and political stability.
Katliamom, but doesn’t that just make my point? The government of Hungary is not taking the refugees because it (the government) knows the country is too unstable and it won’t end well. In a perfect world everyone would hold hands and skip around the maypole, but it’s not a perfect world and, I think, the Hungarian government is right. In that perfect world the situation never, ever would have reached this point, but we all have to deal with the world that exists right now and make the best decisions for everyone. Making life worse for poor, struggling people is probably not the best thing for anyone.
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic etc. are part of the EU. They’re members of a club that represents and acts on certain values. In exchange for acting on those values, they get lots and lots and lots of money.
Now, if they want to leave the EU, and say goodbye to all those euros, they can. (I suspect Schengen will soon be a thing of the past, anyway.) These countries then can return to being if not the third world, then certainly the second, and they can build nice strong borders to keep out the rif raff.
(Of course, then the EU and the US will have quite a few Poles, Hungarians and Czechs fleeing for economic reasons, but hey.)
But right now these countries have to play by EU’s rules. That’s what makes them EU club members.
Whether or not you approve of their racism or xenophobia means bubkis.
I for one, pity the non-white, non-Christian immigrants who get settled there.
I pity a lot of people. I pity people across the world who feel they have no choice but to leave their homes because their own countries have become violent or otherwise uninhabitable. I judge harshly the monsters who force that choice, wherever they are found. Like college funding should start at home, so should good governance and care for citizens of each country. The bad guys here are not EU members, they aren’t even Hungarian racists. The bad guys are Assad, et al, and his enablers from whatever country they come.
Agreed, but then the issue becomes should other currently stable countries put their citizenry into more fiscal debt and lower their citizenry’s standards of living (which automatically occurs with more debt) to put a band-aid on an un-ending problem of the Middle East states?
What does any Western country gain by doing that to its native citizens, who have worked hard to create a stable society? No much, I am afraid. Sadly, I do not believe one country in Europe can definitely say that Middle East immigrants improves, or even maintains, its overall stability. That says a lot right there, as to the risks.
It sometimes seems to me in various situations, that there are people who view crises like these as the opportunity to show their own rightness and to impose their own values on others. I’ve seen that a lot in my work with immigrants. It’s actually not racist to say that destroying communities, families and cultures is a very bad thing and the ideal situation would be for people to be safe and successful in their own homes. Or that immigrants should come for happy, optimistic and forward-looking reasons, not in desperation and anger.
This is very interesting
http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.html
On public taro today, Britain sees record rise in ISIS empathized, they are being recruited to fight overseas. It’s complicated and lots of risk for countries that accept these new wave of refugees.
There is a reason they come by sea and land, and it is not because they are all poor; it is because they are not allowed on airplanes and trains with their official and current documents.
However, by sea and then land, they ditch the documents and ask for asylum, as document-less refugees. It is a way of skirting the limits of Muslim entrees by air and sea.
Did you note the demographics? Where are the women and children?
Yes, I would assume that those who choose to move to other countries because they want to become citizens of those countries have little trouble assimilating, while those who move because they are fleeing do not feel any compulsion to change or adopt the values of their host country, as they are simply trying to avoid a threat to their safety.
This is most likely because the women and children can’t be drafted into the military.
It’s just funny that Hungary wants to keep people out and Hungary is named after the Huns.