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Week 4 [27.03 - 02.04] Refugees crisis

Since 2015 Europe has struggled with the huge mass movement of people since the Second World War. To the European Union countries have arrived more than 1 million refugees and migrants.

The conflict in Syria seems to be the biggest factor of the mass migration. On the other had, violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, poverty in Kosovo, are also leading people to pilgrimage to find a better space to live. Whole families with children walk for hundreds of miles through the night to avoid being shot at by snipers or being caught by warring parties who will kidnap young men to fight for their cause.

The migration crisis shows that people will come to “better world” in spite of barriers. As we remember few months age the main route on Balkans was closed down. As a result now many refugees travel via Bulgaria or North Africa. The case shows that if you close the Libya route,  other routes will be created. Europe cannot be sealed off.

Please watch the presentation on TED and answer questions bellow.



Questions:
1.     Are you for or against to help refugees?
2.     How can we make help for them more accurate?

Bibliography:

Comments

Unknown said…
I'm against accepting refugees from Middle East because their lifestyle means using people who have different religions. I don't mind Ukrainian refugees. We have 3 milions of them. They are not dangerous for us and they want to work.
How can we help refugees?
First thing is that we should help them in their countries not invite them to our countries. You can talk about that for many hours. We all know what dangerous situations are connected with accepting Muslims. Personally I think that their religion is on level that our religion had 1000 years ago. About terrorist attacks I'm not surprised that they organize them in western Europe. Look what western Europe did with their countries and how many people die there.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
It's kind of a tough question, it can't be answered "yes" or "no", because opening borders to anyone is not a solution, as well as closing borders to everyone. Since it's impossible to prevent migration, it can be good if it's controlled - a good example is EU supporting Blue Card program for IT workers, which brings qualified people who are in search of a better life. Of course it's hard to control migration of refugees, but I think that background of each person entering other countries as a refugee should be checked in detail. A good example of this is EU requiring fingerprints for visas since 2011, any documents can be fake while it's harder to tamper with the fingerprints database.
Sylwia Pechcin said…
You can call me racist and intolerant, but I think we shouldn't help them at all. Maybe if their situation was really really bad, but now - absolutely no. To be honest I neither follow news nor read newspapers, because I don't believe in independent media, but I have a lot of knowledge about Arabic culture, their behaviors and customs. They aren't good people and I'm sure that none of Arabic counties wouldn't help any of European country in this kind of situation.
Recently I've read a smart think. I can't quote it exactly, but the main point was that these people escape from countries where they feel uncomfortable in order to make their new countries like the previous ones and in fact to feel uncomfortable again.
In my opinion we should stay away from these people and especially not try to help them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
At the beginning i thought that it is going to be another pointless appeal to let immigrants into europe. After watching I would agree with speaker on all four ideas that he has on improving immigrants life in europe. Especially the one about "matching" immigrants and countires. Living in Europe is privilage, lets not be afraid to say this. We are lucky to have this privilage, but we are also unable to let everyone who wants to get in and start with full social welfare. For me simplest idea to let immigrants work would be to implement humanitarian visa upon signing which, one would have to put personal data like fingerprints and sign agreement on which border he or she would like to be deported in case of breaking european law. Then just lower taxes for enterpreneurs who employ refugees and let them work. In case of heavy crimes on european territory I would be for reintroducing death penalty. Such measures would sift bad seed and still let immigrants live in Europe.
Unknown said…
Of course that I'm against accepting refugees. Just see what happens in the countries where refugees let in for example: rapes. They will try to impose your lifestyle on us. I am glad that there are no refugees in Poland. If would be the other way round I think it would be the same thing in France or in Germany...
Unknown said…
I think that this is awful. The situation and reaction. They are victims of war and I think that this is inhuman to leave them. People always want help, but when they are ask for it they refuse.
I know, that there are refuges, who look for an opportunity and are not fair.
But how about those who really need help? We don't like stereotypes, but we use one.
I liked the solution, that refuges who got to the closest country were kinda took seriously (because they clearly got for help), and the other - not.
I'm not saying "take them all", but leaving all of them isn't right.
Unknown said…
When it comes to Islam, non-Muslims are expected to take its goodwill on faith. If you believe your eyes and ears, Islam and violence go together like peanut butter and jelly. But if you believe Muslims and their spin doctors with academic degrees, Muslims are the victims of other religions.
If Muslims fighting Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists are the victims of non-Muslims, what are we to make of Muslims fighting other Muslims in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq? Religious civil wars make it hard to believe that Muslims are the victims of other religions instead of the authors of their own violence.
Religions have a long history of not getting along with one another, but there is only one religion that has never gotten along with any other religion, is engaging in a religious war with every religion that exists, with atheists who have no religion, and even with its own co-religionists.
Unknown said…
Ihor, as a foreigner how do you fell in Poland? As we all know Poland is one of the most homogenous societies in the EU. Only 0.2% of the population are foreigners. I am very curious about your opinion.
Unknown said…
Sylwia, you are right. In my opinion there are 4 simple arguments against helping them:
1. Refugees pose a security risk to western societies that justifies rejecting them.
2. They will consume resources that are already in short supply (e.g. money, housing, etc.), and that justifies rejecting them.
3. We only have duties to accept refugees where this benefits us, and refugees are not beneficial.
4. We are not to blame for the political conditions in the Middle East that have caused these people to be refugees, so we are justified in rejecting them irrespective of the benefits or harms involved.
Unknown said…
Paweł, very interesting point of view.
Unknown said…
Paulina, of course we - Europe should help them but not in the way we do now. Have you heard about "buffor zone"?? I recommend the article below:
https://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2016/10/07/%E2%80%9Cbuffer-zone%E2%80%9D-plan-70000-stranded-syrian-refugees
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Totally fine so far, but I guess it's partly because slavic cultures and languages are pretty close so immigrants from slavic countries are not stressed like immigrants from, for example, Arabic or Asian countries - this is a different world for them.

It may also depend on the region of Poland, I guess people in Warsaw are less conservative than in a small town where everyone knows each other, so I haven't experienced any discrimination in 2 years and everyone were fairly nice and helpful.
Simple solution - accept refugees that want to work, learn language, culture, and adapt to modern world of given country, reject everybody else. Make it a rule to help given refugee for maximum of 6-12 months, and expect from him to be more or less self-independent after that period.

There are many ways to help, but it's costly. If we suddenly accepted everyone then we wouldn't only run out of money we ALREADY don't have, but we'd also ruin our country with increased crime of all sort, especially rapes, robbery and terrorist attacks. I am glad that I can go to my college with a train and not worry about somebody blowing up himself together with 100 innocent people in it, as opposed to Germany in which I have a lot of friends that are seriously worried about using any sort of public transport or participating in bigger social events - there are even districts you're not allowed to go to if you truly care about your safety.

I don't want anything of that in Poland. It's wise thing to help, but not for the cost of such gigantic sacrifice. Luckily our country is so unpopular that refugees don't really want to come here :).
This is a very delicate and difficult issue and when answering the question “Are you for or against to help refugees?” I can not simply say yes or no. In my opinion we should try to help refugees and asylum seekers, but it has very little to do with the problem Europe is facing today.

In my view, the majority of people trying to enter Europe are not refugees but they are mainly economic migrants. As you can imagine, if you were a refugee and your safety was at risk, you would probably look for shelter as close (and quick) as possible, just to be safe. However, we can observe that most of the so-called refugees are looking for benefits and don’t want to provide any value to the society or host country’s economy. They want to receive social assistance for free, totally effortless. That’s why these people usually don’t want to live in countries like Poland. In such a case, very little can be done to enable them to contribute to the community through study, work and other activities.

Another thing is that Poland accepted many students and economic migrants from Ukraine. Similarities in culture between Poland and Ukraine, as well as their willingness to work have been sufficient to be accepted. Unfortunately, European Union institutes and bodies seem to overlook this fact.
Unknown said…
That's a very difficult topic. Of course I am "for" helping refugees but to the question "how?" I have no answer. It's a huge issue Europe is facing and there are many specialists/experts who should figure it out. There's a political aspect to it as well which I don't want to even comment.
In my opinion letting anyone into the EU is not a solution. Not on such a scale. We are not prepared for it. To take in so many people in such a short time is asking for trouble. I'm talking about over two million people. Not unless we have a plan and resources to accomodate, manage and most of all have a perspective for those people which will benefit both sides. We would have to provide shelters, feed, educate and finally integrate them into our societies. But where do we hire such vast amounts of people from day one? What about language barrier? Integration? Examples of countires with high percentage of refugees shows a sad picture of how integration/assimilation works (it doesn't). "To take in, sit, feed and wait" is a path to disaster and civil frustration and fear.
Maybe we should take closer look at the source of the crisis. Why is it happening, who caused it or helped it happen (looking at you USA/Russia). Provide prospect for people as in this TED talk. Prospect. Not a camp, not a temporary place to stop by, prospects for human beings who also wanna live meaningful lives.
Once again, it's a difficult issue. But we have to take it on as it already affects us all. Europe is mostly 1st world countries (not including Poland) and should act like it.
Unknown said…
Looking what is happening in western Europe I am definitely against refugees. They introduce chaos, produce a lot trash in cities and most of them don’t want to work.
I don’t have any idea how to help them, but opening boarders won’t solve the problem.
Magdalena Popek said…
I am actually quite torn. On the one hand they are people in need. Their country is being destroyed and they have nowhere to go. On the other hand you never know who is entering your country and, as we all know, islamic extremists are extremely dangerous.

In my opinion we should check them better. Who they are etc. And I also agree with Łukasz - only accept those who agree to work and adapt. What Europe did was a pure chaos. Take them all and then think about what to do. Nice.

What I don't like about this whole situation is the propaganda. Fake news showing refugees from the worst site. Why don't we tell people about both good and bad things they do? I bet there are many of them who just want to live a safe life. I personally know a few Muslims living in Sweden. They set up their own businesses (usually restaurants) or work as white-collars. And they are the kindest people you can know. But no one will ever hear about them. Why? Because who wants to read about some Muslim with his business. People want to read about a Muslim who raped a Swidish teenager. That's how it works.
Adam Paśniczek said…
In my opinion this crisis is not looks like how we think it is. Many of these people are not escaping from the war but they want to live in Europe for a financial reason. Europe is to small to take all these imigrants from the midle east. If we want to help refugees then we should help them in their own countries. At first it should be Syrians, they are the most harmed and they are not even in the majority of the group. The rest of these people are other nationalites and I do not understand why we should accept them. Especially if they have not peaceful intentions to us. Our governments should do something with this situation because it could cause in the future more terrorist attacks and more no-go zones.
I do not think it has anything in common with the help it is more of a political issue. Now everyone is talking about refugges but there is no debate about advantages and disadvantages of this crisis. People are forced to accept only one side. This is not democratic at all.
Unknown said…
Probably we're lucky that we life in a poor coutry, with ridiculus social benefits so only people from poorer coutries who are usually working hard want to come to us.
I totally agree with you, that we should accept only those who want to adapt to our culture and wouldn't have radical approach to life, religion, laws and wouldn't try to change our country.
For me the cultural difference is just way to big. These people are moving to countries and they completely disrespecting their laws, culture and destroying everything what is given for them for free. I have a lot of friends in France and Germany and the thing happening there closely to refugee camps are getting out of hands, lot of robberies, fights and it is sad when you cannot send your daughter to the swimming poll alone because someone cannot keep their hands to themselves. Those kind of people should be sent back without any wait time and not be given another try to go back.
KamilG said…
I'm only against untrustworthy refugees, who really just escaped to Europe for a better and easier life. Unfortunately nations like Deutschland have high social welfare. This doesn’t solve the problem. Some of the problems of the economy are causes by more refugees coming to Europe just to get the social welfare. Why? Because these kind of refugees don't want to work. It causes depletion of money from taxes and this causes an economic slowdown. For me the partial solution to this problem is the eradication of high social welfare.
I think we should help refugees but not in the way that it has been done for last months. We can help them in many more ways not just to let them go to Europe. If we are letting them in we should provide them work, we can't just come in here and do nothing. This whole situation is very hard to resolve, because many people are afraid of Muslims and they have their rights to feel that way. When this problem appeared some of European politics made mistakes and that made huge chaos in Europe with which we still haven't resolve. This situation is new for us and as a normal citizens we can't do much about it, only one who can make some changes in these situation are our politics and we should believe that they will act rationally but as we can see they just don't know what to do.
This problem is hard to resolve. On the one hand, we should help people who are running away from war, but on the other hand it is hard to recognize those people. In my opinion, the safest option is to letting nobody. I know it is radical, but I don't see better option to make European countries safe.
Unknown said…
I depends to take refugees to out country. Of course they run away from war but for me they should try to protect their country (only mens). That what i see in televion the biggest part of refugees is mens which can easy fight. If we have to take refugees why should take womens with children who really cant fight. Also if we really have to take mens refugees we should force them to take a job and pay taxes.
Wojtek Kania said…
I'm not against help other people. In our polish history we had many cases that Poles were refugees. But I'm against help refugees with hostile approach to our culture. And most of refugees are radical muslims. That is very dangerous. I'm also against to give him benefits. They must work like other people in our country. Otherwise polish government will discrimination polish citizens.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
I love helping people and it doesn't matter what nationality are they. Even refugees needs help and we should do that for them. The main problem is in the other case. We don't want to invite radical muslims which are dangerous for us. They are disturbing our peace of mind. As a colleague above I'm against to give them benefits, they should work like everyone of us. Our governemt should provide work :).
Unknown said…
Of course they need help but show me the way to distinguish normal muslim from terrorist muslim. There is no chance to be 100% sure that people who enter your country is not a terrorist.
Until the government find such solution I have to say I don't want any of them in Poland.
Look at France, England, Germany, its sick what's happening in those countries.
Vyvyan said…
I'm entirely against it. These so called imigrants bring only problems. The differences between our cultures is massive. It's a gap that we are unable to close. Just look at what's happening in Germany, France and other countries which decided to take in these people. Rapes, terrorist attacks, violence. And everyone in the European Union is trying to convince us that these people would "enrich our culture" or that "they are harmless" and even better that " we have an obligation to help them". NO. This is total bull****.

Consider this:
A man born and raised in muslim country with muslim culture comes to europe. What does he see?
Gay parades. The essence of evil in their minds which comes straight from Qran. Alow me to bring you an example:
" If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done."
This verse is straight from Qran. It's a Hadith (meaning the tale of Mahomet's words/actions or inactions) Sahih (which means literally "True").
What's more these people see WOMEN. Real women. Not bound by anything doing what they want.

Qran says:
"Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband's] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand."
(Sahih International, Verse 4:34)
And these people have it encoded in their brains. Due to many years of relligious brainwashing.

These are dangerous people. Some say that we should just nuke them and forget they ever existed. My boyfriend who (unfortunately) agrees to that explains it like this:

"Until we get rid of those warmongers and terrorists they won't leave us. These people through Qran have for entire generations fought against us. They are overstepping their bounds. They are pushing and pushing nations and we do NOTHING. We grew weak. I despise violence as first course of action, and yet when diplomacy fails and givving a carrot also failed. What is needed is not a stick. We need an Iron Fist. We need to showe these savages that we are not to be trifled with and that poking the bear has consequences. Of course there will be collateral damage. But still. These people won't understend kindness and words. What they will understand is brute force."

As his words are somehow true i don't agree with them. After all life is precious and it's not right to kill. Still i would not want these people in my country as this provides way too much risk in everyday life.

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