Wednesday, November 18, 2015

When is migration an invasion?

The most recent crisis is the one of Syrian "refugees" seeking to escape an ongoing civil war. As so often happens Western nations are the first to offer help. But, are the people leaving Syria really refugees? Or is something else happening and the West is either too blind or gullible to see. This exodus began over three months ago as migrants came in waves, with spontaneity, traveling across the Mediterranean in boats readily available, welcomed in Turkey, and refusing to stop in Greece and Hungary, until they reached their desired destinations, countries with the strongest economies and best quality of living. Being choosy came easy to them. There was little if any skepticism why this exodus occurs now, when the civil war has been going on for more than three years. Were boats not available sooner to take them to Europe? Looking deeper we may find this was more than an exodus, it may be something more. Those who question this migration are called heartless, a successful tactic of those who do not want to have a serious discussion. This is why so many European and American politicians were quick to offer legal refugee status and welcoming tens of thousands with more to come. No leader dared question what was going on, or wondered if this was a spontaneous migration or a well orchestrated one? The nations eager to accept the million or more Syrians should have first considered some troubling factors obvious to all who bothered to look. Begin with the makeup of the migrants arriving in Europe. More than 80% are young men. This is unusually odd on a couple of counts. First, women and children usually receive preference escaping war zones. I am unaware if there was ever a 'refugee' crisis where at least half the people were women and young children. Also, why didn't able bodied young Syrian men stay to fight? A second point, why would such a mass exodus want to travel so far from their homeland? It makes sense to leave a war torn nation, but not to travel more than more than 3000 miles to Western Europe when stable Arab states are much closer. A third point, the Arab states have a population of nearly 350 million, a shade under Western Europe, and can easily take in the millions from Syria. Yet not one is offering refugee status. Questions need to asked and suitably answered before Western nations go forward with this migration. I am sure these points were never seriously discussed, not in Washington, not in Europe and most disappointingly, not in the media. Whatever the urgency to bring 1-3 million migrants to Western nations, when governments act hastily unpleasant surprises are not far behind.

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