After months of apathy, we are finally paying attention to the ongoing refugee crisis that has been taking place in Europe this year. Media outlets are giving Syrian refugees and desperate migrants the focus they deserve, and we are finally beginning to talk about our collective responsibility to ensure that the world’s refugees are out of harm’s way.
A few weeks ago many were heartbroken by the photographs of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed ashore on a Turkish beach. A picture of his young, lifeless body on the white sands was a poignant reminder of the horror experienced by those simply seeking better lives. In response to his photo, many retweeted, ranted, and raged. Many Americans condemned the European Union for its failure to act, and lamented the state of our world.
Now, with each passing day, we hear of another outrage. We’ve seen Italy turn away inflatable rafts packed full of migrants. We’ve witnessed Hungary close its borders to stop the flow of hopeless refugees. We’ve watched as the nation put up barbwire fences, much like those used to keep prisoners in jail or to prevent zoo animals from escaping. We’ve observed a a journalist, in pursuit of great footage and an eye-catching headline, repeatedly tripp families crossing the border into Hungary.
This month, seventy-one migrants were found dead in an abandoned truck near Vienna. On August 24, citizens set fire to a house in Germany that was prepared to temporarily house refugees. These are only a couple of examples of the several such tragedies to occur in recent months.
Frankly, it’s hard not to wonder where our humanity has gone. When did we decide that refugees weren’t as worthy of life as the rest of us are? Why do we value notions of citizenship and nationality over the livelihoods of people faced with insurmountable odds?
Our politicians tell us that the U.S. has done more than anyone else has on this matter. Carly Fiorina said, “The Europeans need to continue to step up,” and that “they have not done as much as the United States has done on that front.” Bobby Jindal reminded us that, “We are already the most compassionate and generous country in the world.” And Donald Trump declared that he’d “love to help, but we have our own problems.”
The facts, however, point to a very different story. According to the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees, there are more displaced people around the world than any other time since World War II. Yet, the United States has done very little to help. There were 2.5 million Syrian refugees around the world in 2013. The U.S. took in just 36 of them. Now, there are four million refugees, and we have only allowed 1,500 of them into the country. Germany, by contrast, received 154,000 refugee applications in the first half of this year alone. Turkey houses 1.9 million Syrian refugees, and Lebanon, with only four million residents, has over 1.1 million refugees.
We have made important steps forward, but they simply aren’t enough. Last week, the Obama administration announced that it would aim to give entrance to 10,000 Syrians in the next year. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would raise its refugee admission limit to 100,000 in 2017. However, we can’t continue to sit by as thousands of people drown in the Mediterranean, perish along the Hungarian border, and are denied their dignity in port cities.
We can’t blame a single country for its faulty actions or its inaction. Instead, we must acknowledge the issue and recognize our role in creating it. Europe must cooperate to more equitably share the burden of incoming refugees, and countries that are well-equipped to accept more migrants, like the U.S., must accept more migrants.
This isn’t some sort of utopian dream. We can accept more refugees if we have the will to do it. We are a nation of immigrants — an amalgamation of peoples who, at one point or another, simply wanted better lives. These refugees wish for the same.
