Syrian Migrants Kept From Asylum, Time to Open Doors

JENNIFER FAN
Staff Writer

Syria is one of many countries in the Middle East impoverished and devastated by war. The Syrian Civil War began when pro-democracy protests erupted to demand President Assad’s resignation and stop the government’s use of chemical weapons. Since the war began in 2011, over 200,000 have perished and more than 11 million Syrians have been forced from their homes, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). These innocent civilians’ homes are being leveled by bombs and their food and water supplies have been blocked. Thus, many Syrians are risking everything they have to find asylum. Yet countries of the European Union still refuse to accept all refugees due to Islamaphobia and fear of an economic collapse.

According to the Huffington Post, Europeans believe the migrants would take away jobs from the native population and create poverty. However, economists predict that the influx of young, educated migrants would actually benefit the host countries by providing a steady supply of labor. Accepting migrants would also stabilize the population because the fertility rate is only 1.5 children per woman in many European countries. In any case, the migrant crisis should not be viewed as an economic crisis, but a humantarian tragedy. Human rights have been violated and the numbers of civilian deaths will only continue to rise if developed countries do not provide the asylum that refugees desperately need.

The U.S. may be over 6,000 miles away from the Middle East, but that does not justify our negligence of the issue either. Just as we have done in the Berlin Airlift in 1949, we should be distributing supplies to the migrants in need of them. We should also be opening our immigration doors for asylum. If the U.S. has the resources to send thousands of troops to the Middle East, we can certainly transport migrants to our country for refuge. The economic and social problems these refugees will potentially cause can always be fixed with time but if European countries continue building walls and shutting their doors, these innocent lives will be lost forever and the blood will be on our hands.