Anurag KacheMoyerEnglish 10(H), Period 512 December 2017Global Issue Profile Paper – Refugee Crisis Worldwide, it is estimated that a total of 65.6 million people are displaced worldwide and that 22.
5 million of those people are refugees (“UNHCR-Figures At A Glance”). Also, 55% of those 22.5 million refugees, come from the Middle East; including countries such as South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Syria (“UNHCR-Figures At A Glance”). According to the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees, a refugee is someone that has been forced to flee his or her country due to persecution, war, or violence resulting them not to return home because of fear (“What is a Refugee”). This can be a cause for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group (“What is a Refugee”). These crises cause millions of people to leave the homes and begin a new entire life, causing burdens on other countries to give them a new beginning. The refugee crisis has become a global issue, still present today, due to the horrific events that cause it.
Michel Chossudovsky, the author of “The Causes of the Refugee Crisis: Mediterranean Refugee Death Toll in 2016-Worst We Have Seen”, clearly states that the refugee crisis can be triggered by war, extreme poverty, war violence, ethnic violence, tribal violence, and religious violence (“Chossudovsky, Michel”). A war between two countries can cause a huge number of innocent lives being at stake. For example, the citizens of one country in a war can be held captive as hostages in the other country. To prevent this from happening, unimaginative amounts of innocent citizens begin to displace themselves from their homes and society to seclude themselves away from danger and death. This causes the people to move to other countries, forcing them to begin a whole new life, which can be dangerous just thinking about it. Another cause is extreme and severe poverty (“Chossudovsky, Michel”).
Poverty can be described as the state of being really poor, whether it is income or environmental. This can occur in citizens when war breaks about between two countries. Once a country is conquered by another one, it causes many people to become exposed to poverty, due to unemployment and a whole new style of government. As people become even more exposed to poverty, they begin to lose their hope of living and they begin to displace from their homes, which is a leading cause of the refugee crisis. Therefore, the effects involve the refugees to become involved in things such as the black market; which includes crime, violence, and much more. Other leading causes of the refugee crisis include war, ethnic, tribal, and religious violence (“Chossudovsky, Michel”).
A failure to respond to these causes of the refugee crisis triggers more refugee flows as well as severe negative impacts. When the refugees displace from their homes, it may lead to them traveling and beginning a new life in a new country. Country hosting refugees may compete for resources; including water, food, housing, e.t.c (“The Impacts of Refugees”). Jobs and unemployment can also become a huge impact on these refugees. Not having a job causes the families of these refugees to be exposed to severe poverty, which then can result in them becoming involved in crime and violence as explained in the previous paragraph.
Also, the presence of these refugees increases the demand for education, health services, infrastructure, e.t.c (“The Impacts of Refugees”). Due to their moving of homes, the child refugees have a disrupted education, leaving them to become uneducated. This causes stress on the government, because if the population of a country inflates by refugees, than those refugees begin to become the main makeup of the population for the future generations. This leads to huge unemployment rates, due to the lack of their education, which is tragically detrimental to the economy of the country. Refugees can also pose a security and political threat to the host country (“The Impacts of Refugees”).
There are different negative impacts besides the economic point of view of another country. There are many detrimental environmental impacts which include: (i) deforestation and firewood depletion, (ii) land degradation, (iii) unsustainable groundwater extraction, and (iv) water pollution (“The Impacts of Refugees”). All in all, there is one underlying statement that we can conclude about the refugee crisis. The refugee crisis affects people around the world and the effects that follow after can harm the people, refugee-hosting countries, and many more.According to the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees, 22.5/65.6 million refugees are under the age of 18 and are affected by persecution, war, or violence (“Refugee Statistics”). This is horrific to think about because it asks us to ponder about the future generations of human beings on the planet.
If more and more people are affected globally, this can lead to numerous catastrophic spiraling effects such as unemployment, lack of education, underdevelopment, and much more. This leads the human species to become a non valuable life, which then basically has no meaning. Also, 1/113 people globally are either an asylum-seeker or a refugee (“Refugee Statistics”). The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees states that an asylum-seeker is someone whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed (“Asylum-Seekers”).
These people are waiting for the protection that they need. As a result, there are many countries who are deeply affected by these asylum-seeking refugees. Some of these countries include Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Myanmar, Eritrea, and Columbia (“What’s Driving the Global Refugee Crisis”). For example, in Syria, 4.9 million refugees are triggered by the outbreak of civil war in March of 2011(“What’s Driving the Global Refugee Crisis”). In Somalia, 1.12 million refugees were present due to the ongoing attacks from the Islamist Insurgency Al-Shabaab (“What’s Driving the Global Refugee Crisis”). Finally, the Democratic Republic of Congo faces 540,000 refugees by the civil wars in the Congo between 1996 and 2002 (“What’s Driving the Global Refugee Crisis”).
On the other hand, despite all of these countries facing these detrimental crises, many other countries are handling this issue very well. Some of these countries include Greece, Turkey, Sweden, Canada, France, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Armenia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and the United States (“Stone, Jon”). In Germany, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, has made an open-door policy which welcomes millions of refugees (“Stone, Jon”). In Sweden, a policy has been made that grants all asylum seekers permanent residency to them, as well as their families (“Stone, Jon”). Lastly, in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro announced that Venezuela will accept 20,000 Syrians (“Stone, Jon”). Various countries across the globe have been handling and coping with these crises in many different ways. But one thing that we don’t look at is how it affects people’s lives.
These refugees begin to compete for resources with locals, leading to violence (“Social and Economic Impact”). Also, their presence leads to more substantial demands on natural resources, education, health facilities, energy, transportation, social services, and employment (“Social and Economic Impact”). This causes unwanted competition between the locals and the refugees, which further leads to crime and violence, the exact opposite of why in the first place these refugees wanted to move from their original country. Once these effects take place in people’s lives, which groups are affected by it? According to the Asylum Aid, women and children are most disproportionately affected by the refugee crisis (“Women Disproportionately Affected”). This means that they are exposed to new environments which can be detrimental to them; such as sexual abuse (“Women Disproportionately Affected”). Despite all of this negativity, governments on individual nations are doing everything they can in their power, to try and make the refugee crisis a manageable problem. As discussed already in the section of countries handling the issue well, countries like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and France are beginning to establish new laws which help guide the path for these refugees (“Stone, Jon”).
Also, Germany accepted around 326,900 Syrian refugees (“Momin, Suman”). Besides governments, international authorities have also stepped up to their spot in helping. Authorities like the European Union, provide assistance to refugees, aid to refugees, and save lives at sea by protecting country borders (“The EU and the Refugee Crisis”). Also, the United States High Commissioner For Refugees works to protect and assist refugees everywhere (“UNHCR-What We Do”). Last, but not least, private groups like the Karam Foundation, help develop educational programs for Syrian Refugee Youth (“Mission”).
In conclusion, a refugee is someone that has been forced to flee his or her country due to persecution, war, or violence resulting them not to return home because of fear (“What is a Refugee”). An approximate 1/113 people globally are either an asylum-seeker or a refugee (“Refugee Statistics”). Many countries are helping to resolve this issue (“What’s Driving the Global Refugee Crisis”). Although many countries are helping, competition causes refugees to struggle for education, homes, and jobs (“Social and Economic Impact”).
To help make this issue solvable, governments, international authorities, and private organizations are helping to (“Stone, Jon”).MLA Works Cited PageChossudovsky, Michel. “The Causes of the Refugee Crisis: Mediterranean Refugee Death Toll in 2016 ‘Worst We Have Seen.’ ” United Nations, 28 Oct. 2016, www.
globalresearch.ca/the-refugee-crisis-mediterranean-death-toll-in-2016-worst-we-have-seen-united-nations/5553467″Mission.” Karam Foundation, www.karamfoundation.org/mission/.
Momin, Suman. “A Human Rights Based Approach To Refugees: A Look at the Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Responses from Germany and the United States.” Duke Forum for Law & Social Change (DFLSC), vol. 9, Sept. 2017, pp.
55-79. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.
com/login.aspx?direct=true=a9h=125430544=ehost-live.”Refugee Statistics.
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2016, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/syrian-refugee-crisis-how-different-countries-have-responded-france-ebanon-uk-a7220616.html”The EU and the Refugee Crisis.” Europa, July 2016, publications.
europa.eu/webpub/com/factsheets/refugee-crisis/en/#what-is-the-eu-doing.”The Impacts of Refugees on Neighboring Countries: A Development Challenge.” World Bank, siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTWDR2011/Resources/6406082-1283882418764/WDR_Background_Paper_Refugees.
pdf.United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Asylum-Seekers.” UNHCR, www.
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org/figures-at-a-glance.html.United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Social and Economic Impact of Large Refugee Populations on Host Developing Countries.” UNHCR, www.unhcr.org/excom/standcom/3ae68d0e10/social-economic-impact-large-refugee-populations-host-developing-countries.
html.”What is a Refugee?” What is a Refugee | USA for UNHCR, www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/.”What We Do.” United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees, www.unhcr.
org/what-we-do-html.”What’s Driving the Global Refugee Crisis?” International Crisis Group, 15 Sept. 2016, www.
crisisgroup.org/global/what-s-driving-global-refugee-crisis.”Women Disproportionately Affected in the Syrian Refugee Crisis and by the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal.” Asylum Aid | Protection from Persecution, 5 Oct. 2017, www.asylumaid.org.uk/women-disproportionately-affected-syrian-refugee-crisis-eu-turkey-refugee-deal/.
