Refugee crisis

[J a c k]

I'm crazy guessing that Rhythm has been misunderstood.

[Excited Penguin]

Ou mai gad, vat iz hapening to ze phorum...

[paulpablo]

So I figured out how to help the refugee crisis
Say we take 100,000 refugees
Split them up evenly among all 50 states (no exceptions, no complainers)
That's 2000 people a state
Then at a go of about 5 cities a state
That's no more than 400 people a city

Surely such a small number won't put a strain on even a mid sized city?

It sounds like a good idea as long as it's not forced charity.

If people want to pay for refugees, their travel, healthcare, education, policing, food, housing general bills and so on then they should be free to do that.

But when you use the expression "no complainers or exceptions" I'm guessing this is a case of forced taxation that no one would be allowed to protest against.

[BrokenQuill92]

So I figured out how to help the refugee crisis
Say we take 100,000 refugees
Split them up evenly among all 50 states (no exceptions, no complainers)
That's 2000 people a state
Then at a go of about 5 cities a state
That's no more than 400 people a city

Surely such a small number won't put a strain on even a mid sized city?

It sounds like a good idea as long as it's not forced charity.

If people want to pay for refugees, their travel, healthcare, education, policing, food, housing general bills and so on then they should be free to do that.

But when you use the expression "no complainers or exceptions" I'm guessing this is a case of forced taxation that no one would be allowed to protest against.

I mean places like Mississippi that don't like anything vaguely brown can shut up. I was thinking of treating it kinda like the foster care system where families would get some small bit of money to help out.

[The Grand Nudger]

We already absorb three and a half times the number of refugees that have been placed on our docket from Syria yearly.  It's already funded with our tax money, and non-voluntary.  What we've been asked to do isn't anything that we don't already do.  Strangely, we balked at the notion.

At our current rate of intake...making Syria a priority would see us able to absorb those 100k refugees you've suggested (5 times the amount we've been tapped for, btw) over the course of a year and a half...but realistically it will take longer to process them (and we'd have to exclude all other seekers).  So call it three years.  We'll still have contributed only a tiny smidgeon to the overall take...and countries in far more vulnerable positions than ourselves, who offer refugees much more, will have absorbed more.  For historical reference, we absorbed nearly 150k from the Balkan wars, in one year, without batting an eye.  The whole situation is embarrassing, on a national level.

Just trying to give some context that seems to be missing from media discussion of the subject.  It's treated like a big deal, when it's actually not.  Can't imagine why... 

[account_inactive]

Give it a few months to see what happens.

And what's the issue with that?

[The Grand Nudger]

If you have to ask....

[Seraphina]

I was surprised to read today that developing countries host 80% of the world's refugees. Turkey and Pakistan host by far more refugees than any other country.
http://www.unhcr.org/uk/figures-at-a-glance.html

I watched an extended piece after all the DNC coverage on PBS Newshour last night on a raft of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea. All the women on the raft died after it started taking on water and from fuel fumes, some died just an hour or so before the Italians were able to rescue them. The surviving men had to climb over the corpses to exit the boat and they told their stories of the raft crossing. Staff from the Red Cross and MSF (strangers to these refugees) placed the dead refugees in coffins and put one flower on each body before closing the coffin.

It was a reminder that these people are human beings too.

[Minimalist]

I was surprised to read today that developing countries host 80% of the world's refugees.

They are a lot closer.

[ignoramus]

I was surprised to read today that developing countries host 80% of the world's refugees.

They are a lot closer.

And 1st world privelidge...power talks.
(The elephant in the room)