![By Voice of America News: Henry Ridgwell on Turkish border, \"Refugees Flee Aleppo; Hot, Barren Turkish Camps Await\". [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/09\/Syrian_refugee_center_with_arched_tents.jpg\")
<\/a>Today, the featured article link on Drudge: \u00a0\u201cShocking moment desperate father throws himself, his wife and baby onto rail tracks in Hungary after realising their \u2018train to Austria\u2019 is actually taking them to a refugee camp<\/a>,\u201d a photo-heavy article in the Daily Mail<\/em> on the situation in Hungary, as the country tries to cope with the hordes of refugees\/migrants attempting to move through the country to seek asylum in (prosperous) Germany. \u00a0The photographs (this is the Daily Mail<\/em>, after all) are shocking, though the question remains: \u00a0to what extent is the desperation to get into Germany a matter of the need to escape threats vs. seeking economic prosperity?<\/p>\n In Calais, would-be migrants attempting to enter England by means of the Chunnel left passengers trapped on the train as they stormed onto the roof of the train, per another Daily Mail<\/em> report<\/a>. \u00a0As the BBC reports<\/a>, some migrants have no chance at succeeding in an asylum claim but simply want to work illegally; others think they have a better chance of receiving\u00a0asylum in the UK than elsewhere; all are drawn by a perceived better economy and the ability to use whatever English they know.<\/p>\n The other day, I posted onto Facebook \u00a0an article on the situation in Germany, \u201cAs asylum-seekers flood in, Germany struggles to house them<\/a>,\u201d which reported that an expected 800,000 refugee-migrants are expected to make their way into Germany \u2014 and they\u2019re not all from Syria or Iraq. \u00a0Here are last year\u2019s statistics<\/a>, for a much smaller number of asylum-seekers:<\/p>\n Total \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0202,834<\/strong> All former Yugoslavia 53,451 26%<\/p>\n Surprised to see the former Yugoslavian countries be so prominent? \u00a0Yeah, so was I. \u00a0But as it turns out, they\u2019re being denied refugee status; here are the statistics for decisions made in 2014:<\/p>\n In the meantime, Iceland has made its way into the news, for a popular wave of support for bringing in refugees, with a Facebook campaign calling for the government, which had planned to take in 50 Syrian refugees, to accept 5,000 instead. \u00a0The New York Times reports,<\/p>\n The group said some of its members have offered to open their houses to migrants and others have volunteered to donate money, clothes, furniture and other items, or to help the new arrivals assimilate.<\/p>\n The Facebook page also said: \u201cRefugees are our future spouses, best friends, our next soul mate, the drummer in our children\u2019s band, our next colleague, Miss Iceland 2022, the carpenter who finally fixes our bathroom, the chef in the cafeteria, the fireman, the hacker and the television host. People who we\u2019ll never be able to say to: \u2018Your life is worth less than mine.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But here\u2019s what troubles me:<\/strong><\/p>\n What is the endgame in Syria, and in Iraq? \u00a0Do we concede that ISIS wins, and takes control of Syria and Iraq, and the best we can do is resettle people out of these hellholes to build lives elsewhere, to leave those countries with such true believers as wish to stay and those individuals who are enslaved\/imprisoned there?<\/p>\n We can list plenty of occasions when that\u2019s been the case. \u00a0Consider the Armenians, who, if they survived the Genocide, knew that their homeland was lost to them. \u00a0It was clear that they needed to resettle elsewhere permanently, not simply as a short-term means of seeking safety. \u00a0Or the ethnic Germans, expelled from their homes in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, as well as their former territory in that part of Germany given to the Poles \u2014 there was no going back, and the world, in the form of the Allies at Potsdam, agreed to it; these people were temporarily housed in refugee camps, but it was clear that this was a temporary situation prior to resettling them in Germany proper, or in America.<\/p>\n In other cases, one\u2019s refugee-ness is supposed to be temporary. \u00a0Is it ever really so? \u00a0Writing here at my desk for a few minutes before I start work, I don\u2019t have the ability to dig into this, and to answer the question that I\u2019m asking myself: \u00a0other than for a natural disaster, has there ever been a situation, one of those perpetual wars in Africa, for instance, where people have returned home from refugee camps because the crisis was resolved, and their home country became peaceful again?<\/p>\n So far as I can tell, there is no limit to the number of people wanting to come to Europe from Syria, and the statements by Merkel and others seeming to welcome anyone who arrives (sorry, I can\u2019t find a quote now) will only accelerate the trend. \u00a0So what then? \u00a0If the cause is lost, the just thing to do is resettle them all. \u00a0If we believe, on the other hand, that ISIS will either be defeated or implode (the latter seems a bit of wishful thinking, but it\u2019s been claimed), \u00a0then shouldn\u2019t the aim be to provide a suitable and humane temporary living situation \u2014 perhaps not my admittedly-outlandish suggestion<\/a> from earlier that Germany outsource the whole refugee bit to Egypt, contracting out the housing and feeding, but nonetheless a focus on keeping the Syrians, well, Syrian<\/em>, and able to return home?<\/p>\n Bottom line: \u00a0are Syria and Iraq lost?<\/p>\n UPDATE:<\/p>\n It occurs to me that there\u2019s another angle: \u00a0men are fleeing to avoid being conscripted, and it\u2019s reasonable to say that they don\u2019t want to fight for Assad. \u00a0But isn\u2019t it reasonable that, with all due understanding to the issue of \u201cwhat rebel group is the true Moderates\u201d, Syrians, at least able-bodied Syrian men, should be expected to fight for their country, rather than simply relocate, and leave those that remain to their fate? \u00a0Where does \u201crefugee\u201d end and \u201cresistance fighter\u201d begin?<\/p>\n Further update:<\/p>\n The newly anointed Poster Child for the Syrian refugee crisis, a boy who drown while his family was trying to escape? \u00a0They weren\u2019t escaping Syria. \u00a0They were escaping Turkey (see this article in The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0and this one in the Washington Post<\/a>). \u00a0Now, their specific situation in Turkey is unclear \u2014 were they in a refugee camp? \u00a0There\u2019s some mention of paying rent, as if they had settled in a Turkish town, and a statement that the UN was unwilling to classify them as refugees. \u00a0Which again raises the question: \u00a0does the West have an obligation specifically to resettle refugees, or simply keep them protected, even if in camps? \u00a0And if those refugees reject a camp, what then?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every day, a new report. Today, the featured article link on Drudge: \u00a0\u201cShocking moment desperate father throws himself, his wife and baby onto rail tracks in Hungary after realising their \u2018train to Austria\u2019 is actually taking them to a refugee camp,\u201d a photo-heavy article in the Daily Mail on the situation in Hungary, as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":2675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSyria \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 41,100 \u00a0 \u00a020%
\nSerbia \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 27,148 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a013%
\nEritrea \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a013,253 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a07%
\nAfghanistan \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9,673 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 5%
\nAlbania \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a08,113 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 4%
\nKosovo \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 8,923 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a04%
\nBosnia & Hzg. \u00a0 \u00a08,474 \u00a0 \u00a0 4%
\nMacedonia \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a08,906 \u00a0 \u00a0 4%
\nSomalia \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a05,685 \u00a0 \u00a0 3%
\nIraq \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9,499 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a05%<\/p>\n<\/p>\n