The Refugee Crisis

One could look at the United States of America and say that we are a country created by refugees. Since even before our nation’s founding, people from all around the globe have fled from their home countries in efforts to escape religious persecution, dictatorships, economic turmoil, etc. and have sought refuge in the U.S. Movement and change are two ideals that are very closely associated with American identity, and it is specifically for this reason that America should accept Syrian refugees into our country. As we speak, thousands of Syrians are fleeing their war-torn homes hoping to find security and asylum in countries in Europe and in the United States. However, more often than not, their journeys across the Mediterranean Sea just result in more struggle and grief. The German government’s announcement to take in half a million of refugees, the global outrage over an image of a drowned Syrian baby in Turkey and Pope Francis’ call for countries to take in refugees, have all put pressure on leading nations--like the United States--to take action. Many communities across the world are taking action in regard to this issue by housing refugees and our community should do the same.The International Rescue Committee called for the United States to open its doors to 65,000 Syrian refugees. However, in the past month, President Obama ordered his administration to decrease the amount of refugees admitted to only 10,000, only small fraction of the 500,000 refugees Germany agreed to take in, and an even smaller fraction of the 4 million Syrians currently fleeing the country. What happened to the America that was on top in global crisis?Many Americans believe that admitting Syrian refugees is a great risk to the security of our country because they may be terrorists. However, it is important to note that many of the countries that have admitted Syrian refugees, such as Germany, have not experienced any sort of terrorism. Moreover, a great majority of the refugees from Syria are fleeing terrorism—from the extremist Islamic militant group ISIS and the government of Bashar al-Assad—themselves. It is not right to deprive a group of people from urgent help because of the stereotype that all Middle Easterners are terrorists.Furthermore, according to the Cable News Network (CNN), John Kerry, the Secretary of State,  and Ann Richard, the Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration told lawmakers that they are in the process of a congressional agreement or an "emergency exception" to admit as many as 30,000 more refugees. However, getting the rate of admitting refugees to increase is not that easy because there are varying views among lawmakers on whether or not to accept more refugees. If more citizens within the United States advocate for the issue, the growing support towards helping the refugees can easily influence lawmakers who are hesitant to welcome refugees and there can be an increase in the number of refugees admitted into the United States. Additionally, if the number of refugees admitted is to increase, there will be high demand for communities to welcome refugees who are in need of housing and support and our community should be one of the many to open its doors to them.Santa Monica can help aid the refugee crisis by raising money for the housing of refugees in our own community through fundraising programs such as Kickstarter’s refugee campaign. Samo specifically can take part in welcoming refugee students to our school, where they will be able  to study and learn material that they cannot access in their home country.Another way our community can help is through providing jobs to educated Syrian refugees. According to the ScienceInsider, the European Commission launched a program called “Science4Refugees”, which helps match refugees with a science background to universities willing to hire them. The universities that are willing to hire refugees get a badge from the commission as a “refugee-welcoming organization.” This system can also be applied here, where companies or organizations can advertise jobs, internships or training programs as refugee friendly.Refugees leave their country in hopes of looking for a safe home, and, as a community that believes in helping the needy and welcoming people from all over the world, we should be providing them with all the aid they need. These people have traveled large distances in order to escape terror and life-threatening situations. If our school has been able to open its doors to foreign students from Austria and Japan, it should be able to open its doors to Syrian refugees as well.