{"id":3247,"date":"2015-11-17T08:41:57","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T14:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3247"},"modified":"2015-11-17T08:52:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T14:52:17","slug":"the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html","title":{"rendered":"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By Voice of America News: Henry Ridgwell on Turkish border, \"Refugees Flee Aleppo; Hot, Barren Turkish Camps Await\". [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>
By Voice of America News: Henry Ridgwell on Turkish border, \u201cRefugees Flee Aleppo; Hot, Barren Turkish Camps Await\u201d. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd<\/a> and September 5th<\/a>, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The fundamental question we have to ask ourselves, and policymakers have to ask, and world leaders, generally, and then answer, and then act on that answer:<\/p>\n

Is the long-term plan for Syrian refugees resettlement or repatriation?<\/p>\n

Have we abandoned Syria and Iraq to ISIS, and war and chaos, and, even with respect to rump Assad-run Syria, oppression? \u00a0Do we accept that the millions of refugees in refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, and elsewhere, will simply be unable to return to their home country? \u00a0If so, then, yes, we need to resettle them, much as millions of refugees from Indochina were resettled, mostly in the U.S., in the two decades after the fall of Saigon. \u00a0It\u2019ll be costly, yes, but necessary. \u00a0But know that once we do, we cement the status quo in those countries.<\/p>\n

Or do we believe that within a reasonable length of time, ISIS will be defeated, Assad will be removed, and those countries will again be places to which the refugees can be repatriated, in the same way as Afghani refugees were repatriated after the Taliban were ousted? \u00a0In that case, resettlement is a lousy idea, not only due to the upheaval it causes on the receiving countries, but because those countries will be left without an educated class to rebuild the country.<\/p>\n

At the same time, if repatriation is the policy objective, we can\u2019t just sit on our thumbs and wait passively for the situation to resolve itself, or imagine that it\u2019s \u201csomebody else\u2019s job\u201d to deal with it. \u00a0Who, after all, are these somebodies? \u00a0The Syrians themselves, even the young men of fighting age? \u00a0I suppose we should be grateful that they\u2019re just leaving, rather than joining up with ISIS, but it is nonetheless the case that they aren\u2019t staying to fight. \u00a0Other Arab countries? \u00a0From what I understand, Jordan is doing what it can, and the Kurds, as well, though we aren\u2019t willing to send over arms, for fear of upsetting the Turks who hold a lot of cards, as it\u2019s in their power to expel Syrian refugees and send them northwards.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m revisiting this today because of two must-read articles that appeared yesterday:<\/p>\n

In the National Review, Mark Krikorian writes, \u201cRefugee Resettlement is Immoral<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0What he means by that is this:<\/p>\n

[T]he goal of refugee assistance is . . .\u00a0to assist as many people as possible with the resources available. And resettling a relative handful of them here to help us bask in our own righteousness means we are sacrificing the much larger number who could have been helped with the same resources.<\/p>\n

The difference in cost is enormous. The Center for Immigration Studies, which I head, recently calculated that it costs twelve times as much to resettle a refugee in the United States as it does to care for the same refugee in a neighboring country in the Middle East. The five-year cost to American taxpayers of resettling a single Middle Eastern refugee in the United States is conservatively estimated to be more than $64,000, compared with U.N. figures that indicate it costs about $5,300 to provide for that same refugee for five years in his native region. Each refugee we bring to the United States means that eleven others are not being helped with that money.<\/p>\n

In other words, each refugee we bring to the United States means that eleven others are not being helped with that money. Faced with twelve drowning people, only a monster would send them a luxurious one-man boat rather than twelve life jackets. And yet, with the best of intentions, that is exactly what we are doing when we choose one lucky winner to resettle here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is very important to recognize; read the whole thing, as they say. \u00a0And yet this presumes that the situation in Syria and ISIS-held territory, in general, will be resolved favorably (or, to put it more appropriately, that somone will resolve it) without these people living their entire lives in refugee camps.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Reihan Salam writes, \u201cResettling Syrian Refugees: An Alternative;\u00a0Economic opportunity closer to home is better than a struggle to integrate abroad<\/a>,\u201d in which he observes that integrating millions of Syrians and other refugees and migrants into the European community is a tall order, indeed. \u00a0The social spending required to achieve their economic integration is enormous (especially in light of their, on average, low education levels, and the existing high levels of youth unemployment in Southern Europe), and their social\/cultural integration is doubtful even so, especially given how un-integrated Muslims already living in Europe (Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, etc.) still\u00a0are.<\/p>\n

Salam shares a new proposal:<\/p>\n

There is an alternative to large-scale refugee resettlement in Europe, though it poses many practical challenges of its own. In \u201cHelp Refugees Help Themselves,\u201d an essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Betts and Paul Collier offer a plan that would resettle Syrian refugees closer to home. While hundreds of thousands of Syrians have sought refuge in Europe, millions have instead made their way to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Some have found themselves in refugee camps; others have settled in cities, where they work illegally and lead a marginal existence. Betts and Collier offer a more sustainable solution: Instead of herding refugees into camps where they are forced to subsist on aid, they call for the creation of special economic zones. Essentially, a consortium of countries, including all of the major Western economies, would create financial incentives and trade concessions to spur industrial development in these zones, which would employ refugees and, in some number, citizens of the host country. Betts and Collier note that the Jordanian government has already established a number of industrial zones, one of which, King Hussein Bin Talal Development Area in the eastern Mafraq Governorate, is just 10 miles away from the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp. With its current infrastructure, KHBTDA can accommodate as many as 100,000 workers, but it currently employs only 10,000. If KHBTDA were reinvented as a special economic zone for Syrian refugees, Betts and Collier report that it could employ every worker in the Zaatari camp and only reach half of its full capacity. With the help of the international community, KHBTDA could become a hub for labor-intensive manufacturing and other kinds of productive economic activity. Ultimately, skills learned and firms established in these new special economic zones could be brought back to Syria once peace is re-established there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which, I\u2019ll remind readers, isn\u2019t all that different from my half-baked suggestion<\/a>\u00a0last January to use al-Sisi\u2019s intention to take Egypt in a moderate direction by funding it as a great center for refugee intake.<\/p>\n

Is this resettlement or repatriation? \u00a0It attempts to be somewhere in-between \u2014 a viable solution for a longer period of time than a tent in a refugee camp, in which refugees are able to support themselves and have a \u201creal life\u201d with jobs and education and homes and communities, but in places where the ties are maintained so that repatriation is ultimately possible, even if only as a long-term goal.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The fundamental question we have to ask ourselves, and policymakers have to ask, and world leaders, generally, and then answer, and then act on that answer: Is […]<\/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-3247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-17T14:41:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-17T14:52:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/09\/Syrian_refugee_center_with_arched_tents.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"421\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html\",\"name\":\"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-17T14:41:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-17T14:52:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?","description":"I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?","og_description":"I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2015-11-17T14:41:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-11-17T14:52:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":421,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2015\/09\/Syrian_refugee_center_with_arched_tents.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html","name":"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-17T14:41:57+00:00","dateModified":"2015-11-17T14:52:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"I harped on this back in September, for instance, in a pair of blog posts on September 3rd and September 5th, and, it seems to me, elsewhere, too. \u00a0The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/11\/the-fundamental-question-resettlement-or-repatriation.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The fundamental question: resettlement or repatriation?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}