With noble intentions, nations across the world pledged to permanently resettle hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians. This was a reflex following the media coverage of the waves of asylum seekers flooding into Europe, which had been happening for some time.
At the time, only a few EU and other Western countries voiced concern. Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Solvakia voted against an EU plan to redistribute the over 100,000 asylum seekers in Southern and Eastern Europe, citing concerns about preparedness (both in infrastructure and cost). Meanwhile, President Obama pledged to permanently resettle at least 10,000 while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to permanently resettle 25,000.
Then the tragedy in Paris happened. Now the world is forced to reconsider how we approach permanently resettling refugees on top of providing foreign aid.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to slow down the flow of refugees (though FAIR has concerns about security measures in place), while 30 governors have called for a halt on resettlement of Syrian refugees.
But the U.S. is not alone in their concerns. Prime Minister Trudeau has now called for Canada to slow down the process for resettling refugees and limited admissions to families, women at risk, and gay men and women (notably no single males). Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced that his country, which has the highest asylee intake per capita, needs a respite. “It pains me that Sweden is no longer capable of receiving asylum seekers at the high level we do today,” he said. “We simply cannot do any more.”
When disasters and crises strike–like the Syrian migration crisis–politicians are often reflexive in their response. What is needed is reflection before action. The U.S., Canada, Sweden, and other countries are right to slow down the process (not stop all together) and ensure that any resettlement be done safely, with the support the citizens, and at a level that a national budget can reasonably absorb. Doing otherwise creates the kind of chaos that we’re seeing now from both sides.
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The presence of large refugee communities is inherently dangerous, since the sheer numbers of foreign nationals can provide cover for terrorists to operate for extended periods of time without detection.
Besides, the United States is at a point where we no longer have the natural resources or the industrial capacity to admit everyone who wants “a better life”.
Immigration induced overpopulation drives up prices for commonly consumed goods and commodities – such as food, land, real estate, water, and utilities – due to increased demand. It also drives down wages in a wide variety of occupations due to an increased supply of workers.
Thus, mass immigration is immensely profitable for institutional investors and corporate executives. Conversely, these open border policies represent an economic and national security nightmare for the rest of us.
There’s your point of view, which is nuanced and thoughtful, and then there are the people on the other side who argue by slogan. They say “when your grandparents came here”. Totally different situation back then. The biggest difference being there was no welfare state to pay when immigrants have a larger family than they can support. It was make it on your own then. Not hand the bill to the taxpayers, which is what happens now.
You are correct about the slogans. It’s amazing – and depressing – to observe just how many Americans have been fooled by the corporately funded PR campaigns that are launched to support the Open Borders / Free Trade agenda.
Those of us who know who these issues in detail are definitely in the minority.
I am mildly encouraged by the angry uprising – mainly among grassroots conservatives in the Republican Party – against the ultra-wealthy Globalist “Donor Class” that has dominated both the GOP and the DNC for so many years. It remains to be seen whether or not this grassroots passion will result in immigration and trade policies that actually represent the interests of the American People.
Regardless of how the 2016 elections turn out, we will need to engage and recruit more citizen-activists into the Patriotic Immigration Reform movement.
I’ve seen plenty of liberals endorse the open border policies of groups like CATO. Of course they completely disagree on the rest of the CATO agenda which is anti worker and anti environmental.
Leland EDUCATE YOURSELF the biggest demographics in Welfare are WHITES……….go and do your research so basically what you say it that the ones screwing up things are us,,,,…..
Educate yourself, instead of mindless cliches. More whites are on welfare because they are by far the largest group. But percentage wise, Latinos and blacks are more likely to be on welfare programs. For instance, Latinos are on Medicaid at twice their percentage of the population. If whites were on those programs at the same rates there would be far more of them on welfare. If whites are more than 2/3 of the population but use only a little more than 50% of all welfare, wouldn’t that make a white person LESS likely to be on welfare thab a Hispanic person? Or is this all a little too much for your poor brain to figure out?
Are you from the Dark Ages?…..I think so you measure Welfare by the numbers so out of 330M it happens Whites are the biggest number therefore the laziest and the ones that take the most advantage that is a FACT…the rest learn from them……… you have a narrow small mind……
Or as mark twain once said…there are lies damn lies and statistics. You can slant them any way you want to prove your points.
How many is “at least 10,000”? 50,000? 100,000? A million? 10 million?
How many, Mr President?
We Immigrate More People in America than the Rest of the World’s Countries Put Together
We’re the most DIVERSE country on planet earth, yet we’re racist and lack diversity? The open border crowd has no brain and is the laughing stock of the world.
The crats permanently scream racism to keep the pressure on…their goal is less than 50% white and a permanent supermajority of socialists…their top genocide fantasy.