A better way to help refugees
Governor Brown recently signed a letter to President Trump’s administration saying in effect that Oregon will welcome refugees assigned here in any numbers.
It’s apparent that the issue of refugee resettlement needs to be more fully discussed.
What is true compassion for the millions of citizens of other countries who risk their lives to get into the U.S. and Europe claiming to be refugees?
There are millions of refugees around the world today. We cannot take them all, and we are not really helping when we bring certain ones to admit into the U.S. or into Oregon. This only makes it possible for some in the U.S. to feel virtuous, and for the agencies here that process the refugees to enrich themselves.
These nonprofit agencies are overwhelmingly financed by the federal government, making tax-paying citizens bear the ultimate, huge cost. The agencies have become self-perpetuating bureaucracies with a vested interest in serving large numbers of clients.
Furthermore, it has been documented that a high percentage of applications by persons seeking refugee status are fraudulent.
We should not encourage refugees and faux-refugees to come here by issuing blanket welcome statements. For the same amount spent on assistance to refugees in the U.S., we could be helping millions of others who’ve been left behind. The U.S. already works with other countries and the United Nations to maintain safe centers for refugees in places near their home countries, with the aim of making it possible for most of them to return to their home countries eventually.
In a BBC Radio 4 documentary series, A New Life in Europe, a Syrian man, head of a family attempting to enter Europe, speaks bitterly of Germany’s accepting some refugee claimants while he and his family were back in the Middle East after failing twice to reach their European destination and be accepted: "If they would close the door, people would try to help themselves here. ... We would change our plan, we wouldn't have to keep trying and waiting for another boat. We would look for a better life somewhere else. They are throwing a piece of bread tied to a string and they just keep pulling it away from you."
In other words, don’t tempt us unless you intend to let all come in who wish to.
Help for true refugees is needed worldwide. Rather than extending help piecemeal, to random fractions of the total, let’s help all of them in the most effective way possible. That means cooperation with other countries and the United Nations.
