Persuasive Essay On Syrian Refugees

For thousands of years countries went without borders, with open arms to adventurers and seekers, but what happened in this world to create this need for controlled and closed borders? One justifiable argument is that these borders are a result from the colonization of 3/4ths of the world by many European countries. Their need to control and “civilize” foreign countries that had not heard of their god killed millions and set up these borders between different colonized territories. Since the 1500s, western countries have felt it to be their right and their duty to control and keep a watchful eye over other countries in the “less developed” (as it is tended to be called) part of the world. One heavily watched region is the Middle East, watched

by America since the ending of World War 2 (and the creation of the sovereign state of Israel) and the beginning of the Cold War; and watched by the United Kingdom to ensure Western access to oil in the Gulf. But after the 9/11 attacks, American policy has since emphasized the counter terrorism movement. The United States has since been heavily involved in certain countries, one being Syria. Today, we see Syria in the middle of a 3 year civil war, with the average citizen fearing for themselves and their families every day. Countries like Syria are seeking to find asylum in other near-by regions, with Europe having the most popularity so far. With Syrian refugee’s migration becoming such a huge global issue, we as global citizens should
be able to properly analyze what is going on by trying to understand the causes, consequences and reactions, and possible outcomes for this crisis.
There are many causes behind why the Syrian refugees decided Europe would be the best place to seek asylum.

A columnist for the Qatari Al-Sharq, Ali Al-Rashid, wrote, “The Arab and Islamic states, their governments and peoples, bear no small share of the responsibility for the situation of the Syrians and for their ongoing exodus to Europe… because this ongoing and growing stream of refugees that is flowing into Europe, especially in recent months, has several underlying causes. Perhaps the most important of these [causes] is the restrictions that have been placed on Syrian refugees in most of the countries bordering Syria where they have been compelled to stay, whether [restrictions] on [finding] employment with reasonable pay that would meet the basic needs of sustenance, or in providing education for their children and health services for their families. In these countries they are also subjected to constraints on their freedom of movement…” (memri.org). The first question to be asked is why would the bordering Islamic/Arab countries exhibit such restricting policies on the Syrian refugees, especially enough for them to want to risk their life crossing oceans just to get to Europe? In response to Syrians heading to Europe and risking their lives, we hear nothing from rich Gulf countries and the silence is deafening. We see that there are 1.8 million Syrians that have migrated to Turkey and 1.17 million that are in the less sufficient Lebanon (as of July 9th of 2015), so

what is it that makes Egypt, Iraq, and other North African countries so off putting to the Syrian refugees? Because after hundreds of thousands of refugees have headed to Europe, we are already seeing the underlying reactions and consequences.
After the death of 3 year-old Aylan Kurdi, the rest of the world finally noticed what was happening in the Mediterranean; the deaths, the fear, and the lack of humanity from most European countries for not stepping in.

Unfortunately it took this widespread death to get more people to pay attention, but the quickly brought upon and massive amounts of attention has only made the EU feel pressured on its decisions dealing with the crisis. But what even considers this to be a crisis? The EU has had many talks on the matter and why they think they should be forced to be responsible for this matter. It can be argued that we are referring to this as a crisis due to a massive influx of people in such a short amount of time, but one must not think of just the numbers, but of the way the EU is failing the international community to help share the burden of such a large and helpless amount of people. Yet some countries and their people share quite different views on the matter. Alan DuPont of The Australian says, “German Chancellor Angela Merkel has opened a Pandora's box of future ills for Europe by her well-intentioned but poorly conceived decision to offer safe haven to any asylum-seeker who can reach the safety of Germany's borders,” and continues on to refer to the refugees as migrants, belittling their efforts and the fact that they must leave in order to survive. It seems outside of Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Sweden, most other areas aren’t attempting to aide

refugees and think it isn’t their problem, but the UN’s problem.
The United States held a Capitol Hill conference convened by the Middle East Policy Council in July 2013 to discuss the crisis in Syria. The US’s strategies in handling the matter was brought into play, which has been a combination of sanctions against the regime, various kinds of aid to the opposition, and diplomacy, yet we see these efforts have been ineffective in the fight against the Assad regime (Simon). President Obama sees this crisis and has commended German Chancellor Merkel on Germany’s efforts, but many of the Arab countries are asking where the US is at for the refugees, since they have been warning about this for years and believe the US has made the problem even worse. If the numbers of refugees from not only Syria, but many other Middle Eastern and African countries becomes too much, the US would be forced to step in. The US had no problem taking in Jewish and other ethnic cultures during World War 2, so why should this time around be any different? We must ask how the refugee’s ethnicities and religions play into what could possibly happen. 2600 have died so far in trying to get over here, and western countries will soon need to decide when enough is enough.
In order to handle the refugee crisis in Europe, citizens should be able to interpret the causes, consequences and reactions, and possible outcomes. António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has been sounding the alarm and describing the Syrian refugee crisis since the summer of 2013. He stated in June of that year that Syria as a civilization is unraveling, and that it was the worst catastrophe since the end of the Cold War (Dahi). With this problem not appearing to disappear anytime soon, one must stand back and look at why the world is not all coming to the aide of those in need. Despite color, ethniciry, religion, or any other factor people have used in the past to justify certain actions, in today’s global world each citizen must be able to recognize when part of the world is in dire need, each country has to take responsibility.