Well, my earlier post on this subject said it was part 1, which implies more to come, so I figure I better get on with putting down a few more of my thoughts, which are mostly just reactions to what I see and hear others saying about the number of refugees coming into Germany and other Western nations from Syria, Afghanistan, etc.
To those who would like to see the borders closed and refugees denied asylum because some people who are not in danger might use the situation to bypass the standard immigration process:
I would no sooner close the border for this reason than I would close down a homeless shelter or end the food stamp program because a small percentage of people using such things are taking advantage and not in true need. You know, in this case, I struggle to wrap my mind around the idea at all----this is basically saying that allowing many hundreds of thousands of people, mostly children, to be raped and killed or conscripted into an extremist army is somehow a lesser evil than accidentally allowing, perhaps a few thousand people to immigrate without going through the proper channels. How can that be a position any decent human being would even consider to be reasonable? I like to think those proposing this simply have not thought it through clearly.
Perhaps it would also ease people's concerns to know that (in Germany at least, and I assume elsewhere) there is a process that refugees go through after arriving and to grant asylum quickly to those who qualify so they can begin working and starting their new lives. Others are deported. Germany is working on speeding up the process so those who are taking advantage can be deported quickly, freeing up space and resources for actual refugees.
To those who fear that allowing so many refugees in will "destroy the culture of Germany:" Well, I am an immigrant here myself, so I don't suppose I have much right to want to deny others the same chance, even if I wanted to. But I am not really worried about a massive cultural shift anyway, and on a smaller scale cultures has never been stagnant, so this is nothing new or bad. I think Germany can manage to maintain its heritage, its love of football, wurst and Christmas markets; its tendencies to drive fast, work hard and travel often; its manufacturing and engineering based economy; etc while welcoming in people from Syria, much as it did while welcoming those from Turkey a generation or two ago and the (largely Italian) guest works of the 1960s. Germany has been the modern day melting pot of this world of ours, and while there are the inevitable bumps along the way, it seems to work reasonably well more often than not and I do not think it makes Germany any less German. I liken it to the fast rise of the Hispanic population on the USA. We might have gained some as a culture because of that rise over my lifetime, but we certainly did not lose anything.
"but, there are Muslims coming in, the cultures is too different" Yeah, um, well the Turkish immigrants were mostly Muslim as well. I don't have any fear of Islam, or of any other religion in and of itself. Now, extremists, they scare me. I would worry if we were seeing hundreds of thousands of extremists (from any religion) moving in. As is, the refugees are fleeing extremists, so, nope, not worried.
Sigh. It happens that in this moment in history there are a fairly large number of Islamic extremists, and far too many of them have power or deep pockets (or both). I suppose this results in people thinking that the extremists represent the religion as a whole, but this is simply not the case (I write this as someone who counts a number of not extremists Muslims among my friends). Extremists, whether in the form of Warren Jeffs and his fundamentalist LDS sect, the Branch Davidians or ISIS are scary but none of those things represent the larger religions from which they sprang.
and, speaking of ISIS, to those who feel refugees should not be give asylum due to the risk of ISIS exploiting the situation: I work with USA Girl Scouts Overseas in our area. We have a private facebook page which only registered girls and their families, as well as leaders, can access which we use to post meeting dates and locations and the like. We get 4-5 add requests from perfect strangers a week. The VAST majority of those are from men whose home pages are in Arabic. I figure this is just a tiny example of how militants are targeting youth and persuading them via use of social media. I see articles all the time talking about how social media is being used as a tool to recruit for Jihadists and to shake up morale among those fighting extremism, etc. I think this needs to be taken seriously and steps taken to counter act it, but I do NOT think facebook, Twitter, etc should be disbanded; nor do I feel refugees should be denied safety because some extremists might possibly capitalize on the situation.
Honestly, my bigger concern is to figure out why it is that extremists seem to be able to sway so many of our Western raised young people to sympathize with or even fight for them--whether that be in person or through social media. Why are so many so susceptible and how do we counter act that? I highly doubt that leaving hundreds of thousands in serious jeopardy out of fear of their religion or culture is going to be the magic elixir which stops that draw towards extremism--if anything, it might push more towards it if we Westerners are so frightened by those who are different that we will sacrifice the lives of children to keep the difference away from ourselves.
So, I guess the sum of my scattered thoughts is that I am proud of Germany (and others) for taking in the refugees and doing the best they can to help people and I hope those nations who have been unwilling to do much step up and do more. I hope the situations in Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, etc improve and stabilize so that people no longer must flee their homes.. I hope those who have left and are now trying to rebuild their lives feel welcomed and are welcomed into their new communities and helped to learn about the culture they are becoming a part of while also getting to teach their new neighbors about their heritage. I hope refugees and citizens are understanding of the missteps that inevitably happen as communities struggle to provide for the influx. I hope we, as humans, can pull together, as we have been doing thus far, and help one another and help make this work out for all. And I intend to help to the extent that I am able.
--Hadley
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