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The recent immigration wave in EU is not really about people who would be "left to die" if they weren't taken in. They are generally not fleeing from immediat
by ptaipale 10y ago
The recent immigration wave in EU is not really about people who would be "left to die" if they weren't taken in.
They are generally not fleeing from immediate danger, and they select their target countries of migration based on perceived chances of making a living (by work or by social security) and having a community where one could live (usually one's own countrymen). The perception of where one can make a living is received from often fanciful messages in social media that are of course frequently quite wrong.
On the way, they pass through countries that are safe enough for them to stay. Countries that are safe for anyone to take holiday. Millions of people from EU have holiday in Turkey and Greece each year, for instance. Migrants come through these countries. They are certainly not being killed in Turkey, for instance, but they want more than that.
This doesn't mean that the migrants are bad people. They are looking for a better life, just like any of us would do. They come from many, many countries that are run badly. I can't blame them for wanting to emigrate. And the availability of Internet and improved economical resources and improved connections have made migration more feasible than ever, particularly with the European taxpayer paying the bill at the receiving end through the asylum process.
But the asylum mechanism meant for protecting persecuted individuals is largely being misused in this process. The public perception of the whole thing being a scam is strengthened by well-meaning but unwise poses and statements of politicians that later make them look ridiculous.
For example, thousands of people from Iraq came to my country last autumn. We were told that they were here because otherwise they would be killed. They complained about the food served to them and they complained that they were given too little money by the government. Now a significant portion of them has decided to go back to Iraq. Obviously, they weren't about to be killed back then, nor are they now voluntarily returning to their deaths. They just found that climate is not nice, and there are no jobs for untrained people. So the taxpayer hands out money for them to fly back.
That's what I call ineffective, and this kind of things gets voters mad. Calling these voters "right wing" or "Nazis" is not going to help. They well merely think: "I'm a reasonable person and they call me right wing; I guess the right wing is reasonable people then".
- discordianfish 10y ago> For example, thousands of people from Iraq came to my country last autumn. ... > They complained about the food served to them and they complained that they were given too little money by the government. > Now a significant portion of them has decided to go back to Iraq. Obviously, they weren't about to be killed back then, nor are they now voluntarily returning to their deaths. > They just found that climate is not nice, and there are no jobs for untrained people. So the taxpayer hands out money for them to fly back. You have any sources for that? I'm trying to imaging someone fleeing by risking their lives and paying with all their savings and then return because they didn't like the weather. This sounds like right wing propaganda to me. And whether people consider themself as reasonable or not doesn't matter. It matters whether they are.
- jk4930 10y agoUse an online translator of your choice for the following: Deutschlandfunk (public broadcasting): http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/rueckkehr-in-den-irak-fluechtlinge-wollen-wieder-nach-hause.862.de.html?dram:article_id=342497 http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/rueckkehr-in-den-irak-fluechtl... Tagesschau (public broadcasting, left-leaning): https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/rueckkehr-irak-101.html https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/rueckkehr-irak-101.html Zeit (most widely read German weekly newspaper, centrist-left): http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2016-03/fluechtlingskrise-irak-rueckkehr http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2016-03/fluechtlingsk... Explicitly no right-wing media, far from it in fact.
- ThomPete 10y agoJust google around. This is factual. You are not a refugee if you are fleeing several countries. An economic one sure, but it's a very different thing then. This is why there is an increasing push to add more money to surrounding areas so they can provide better help locally.
- vidarh 10y ago> You are not a refugee if you are fleeing several countries It is pretty odd to me to assume that someone who has given up everything and spent all their money to leave, and thus has demonstrated a willingness to go to extremes to get away from their original situation, will cross a border and suddenly decide "hey, no point in seeing if we can get it better if we go a bit farther". In other words, while I'm sure there are purely economic migrants who haven't suffered all that much hardship who try to take advantage of the refugee stream, it is possible to both be a genuine refugee fleeing for your life and also quite reasonably want to find the best possible place to live once you've managed to get away from the worst risk. Not least because it is also about dealing with horribly poor information about where they might have the best chances at being allowed to stay. If we want people to stay closer, then it needs to feel to people arriving in e.g. Turkey, like staying in refugee camps there is a reasonable choice.
- ThomPete 10y ago
- tomp 10y agoThis is an amazing explanation, thanks!