United States Seek Refugees Essay

Seeking Refuge: United States Refugee Admissions Program

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and even until today, the United States has been a top destination for refugees. Despite our physical isolation from most of the rest of the world, we simply have the space and capabilities to deal with asylum seekers more so than most other nations worldwide. Our nation as we know it was essentially founded by these refugees, individuals coming from Europe to seek prosecution based on religious and ideological persecution. However, our national mindset as certainly changed since then. Now, refugee issues are far more contentious, especially recently. Due to the large volume of those trying to seek asylum within our boarders, we have several

We live in a very, very big world with a lot of people and a lot of governments. At any given point in time, someone, somewhere is forced to flee one of those governments due to threats, persecutions, or even threats of persecution. Right now it is Syria, but twenty years ago it was Yugoslavia and the Balkans, and even before that it was Vietnam, Uganda, and the aftermath of WWII. In fact, it is that last even that triggered our modern definition and treatment of global refugee crisis. In 1947, the United Nations founded the International Refugee Organization, or the IRO. The end of WWII and the formation of the United Nations ended a longstanding period of Isolationism, especially for the US, and since then the US has taking major strides to be a global leader and to set the standards for how others can and should deal with large scale global crisis. The United States is a signatory and member of the IRO and therefore has a certain set of expectations and responsibilities when it comes to taking in and dealing with refugees in the wake of crisis

Opening up boarders completely and granting admission to all those who enter could potentially pose a threat of safety to those living in the country already, and allow others to take advantage of the position who may not really be in need of asylum. This is one of the biggest fears facing the current refugee crisis, but one that has been universal since the notion of asylum seeking has been on the global playing field.

Today, this issue is one that is on the forefront of every conversation regarding the Syrian crisis. Whenever it comes up in discourse in politics, the conversation is often framed by thoughts of what could happen if refugees become violent, and often cite examples taking place in other countries with no systems like this in place or with no regard for the welfare of the refugees once they make it to the designated camps and areas.