The United States is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Germany and Sweden are. While I agree with the NYT op-ed writer that riots and burning the habitations of refugees in Germany villages are signs of hate, I don’t agree that the “Dublin mechanism”, which makes a practical distinction between refugees, who under the Convention are owed shelter and care, and economic migrants who aren’t. When a migrant arrives in Greece from Turkey, as European law reckons it, they may claim refugee status. They must present themselves to local authorities, have their names, countries of origin, fingerprints, and justification of their refugee status taken. When, in full knowledge of the law, they make their away across five countries, shopping for the best economic conditions and benefit packages, thinking of the migrants as refugees begins to strain credulity.
As an offhand guess I’d say that something like a third of humanity can qualify for refugee status. Certainly the populations of many Middle Eastern sub-Saharan African countries can. Is not wanting to pay for the upkeep of the migrants, who in many cases reject your language, culture, habit, religion, and liberal values hatred? Or is it just being mugged by reality?
France and Germany are going to awfully crowded.
The link indicates that the U.S. didn’t sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, but did sign the 1967 protocol which might be broader? I don’t know, but the treaty seems to have the same elements as U.S. recognizes.
A “refugee” is someone with a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. A refugee cannot be returned to their home country, so long as that condition persists. Though as a practical matter, many host countries may offer citizenship to the “refugee.”
Again, I think that sounds like U.S. law, but I do not believe the U.S. has ever interpreted either natural or manmade disasters like civil wars as creating a right of amnesty, because there may not be particularized persecution. A civil war could contain elements of persecution, but there is a difference between an individual being persecuted because of their religious affiliation and people fleeing the generalized chaos and violence of war.
For example, of the 23,551 fleeing Haitians interdicted at Sea and brought to Gitmo between September of 1981 and September of 1991, 28 were allowed to continue to the United States and apply for asylum.
A “refugee†is someone with a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
You mean like being a county clerk in Kentucky? [Ducks, runs for cover.]
She doesn’t have to live like a refugee, she can either sign the stupid papers or walk away.
Listen, it don’t really matter to me baby
You believe what you want to believe
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee
Somewhere, somehow, somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Tell me, why you wanna lay there
Revel in your abandon
It don’t make no difference to me baby
Everybody’s had to fight to be free
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee
It’s interesting that the Europeans haven’t noticed that the photo of the drowned toddler that’s creating such a furor was taken in Turkey not Germany. In other words, yes, there’s a problem but the problem is greatly aggravated because Turkey isn’t living up to its responsibilities.