4 Reasons We Should Think Before Acting on Migrant Crisis

[AJL]

This is an opinion piece from The Forward. The Forward is a largely socialist-democrat leaning Jewish publication. This was posted by a good friend of mine and a lot of mutual friends agreed with it. But something about the author's opinion really rubs me the wrong way and I'm having a hard time pinpointing just what it is. Anyway, I thought I'd share.

*******************************************************************
4 Reasons We Should Think Before Acting Rashly on Migrant Crisis

I have watched the unfolding refugee crisis with horror. Who could not be moved by the sight of families risking their children’s lives in rickety boats and on rafts designed for leisure and not for escape routes on rough waters?

The picture of little Aylan Kurdi in blue shorts and red shirt dead on the beach left us all speechless.

As a student of Jewish history, I find the image of suffering innocents desperate for refuge stinging. Years ago I began my exploration into the Holocaust by studying the American response. I was appalled by the deep-seated hostility American officials and bureaucrats showed toward Jewish immigrants. They erected, in the words of historian David Wyman, “paper walls” to keep out the foreigners. Jews were turned away simply and solely because they were Jews, even when that meant they would be sent to concentration camps. Seeing Aylan’s lifeless body washed up on a beach, who among us does not wonder: Is history repeating itself?

Everywhere I go, this plagues people. I have listened to friends and acquaintances, from the well informed to those who intentionally avoid the news — whether at my gym, at dinner tables or in departmental meetings — ask: “What do I do to help?” Deeply caring people declare, “The failure to help them is a reflection on the failure of Western society.” I have found myself remaining strangely and uncharacteristically silent.

I am beset by four sets of unanswered questions that require nuanced responses. For some, the very thought of hesitating to act while working through questions in the face of traumatized children is to be hard hearted. Act now, they say, and question later. Yet the decisions that are being made now have tremendous long-term implications. With deep and abiding respect for the dead, there is still much to be learned. We need to go beyond the emotional response to desperate images and grapple with the social, political and moral implications inherent in our response.

Are these migrants fleeing for their lives, or are they trying to find a better economic and social future for their families? Some are coming because of intolerable and swiftly deteriorating security conditions; others may well see a strategic opening. We must be vigilant about humanitarian issues and more wary of an unquestioning open-door policy.

I say this well aware of the fact that both my parents came to this country in search of a better economic future. But they were immigrants who moved here as part of an articulated immigration process; they did not uproot themselves and make their way across the border.
Maybe we have to differentiate between those who are fleeing a poor country and those who are fleeing a war zone like Syria.

How will this influx of people change the face of Europe? Will they prove willing to be integrated into European society? And conversely, is Europe willing to do what is necessary to integrate them?

I do not care if they do not become aficionados of European art and culture. That is not sacrosanct. What I care deeply about is the extent to which these new immigrants will commit to democratic principles and to the messiness of a democracy.

Will they prove able to accept that democracy entails the willingness to have one’s most basic belief challenged? Do they understand that the freedoms of speech and expression have no “but” associated with them? Will an influx lead to a powerful right-wing nationalist backlash? And if so, how can that be addressed and prevented?

And why, for that matter, have so many Muslim countries shut their doors to them? While huge numbers of those fleeing Syria have found refuge in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, what of the oil-rich Gulf States? They have welcomed none.

Muslims are asking the same question.
What about Israel? In a rare personal turn, I find myself almost agreeing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to accept any refugees. Israel has given extensive medical aid to Syrians caught in the bloody civil war. Many of them, while grateful, hide the fact that Israel helped them, and they do so because of the open hostility Syria’s citizens feel toward Israel.

How, then, is Israel to open its doors to Syrian refugees? How does Israel check fleeing crowds for associations with extremist groups bent on Israel’s harm? Yet might it not have been possible to symbolically accept a few thousand who were properly and thoroughly vetted? Wouldn’t this send a message about Israel’s commitment to Jewish values?

If you detect ambivalence and struggle in my questions, you are right. I, like many of you, am trying to discern what is happening here. Even as I do, I wonder whether my compassion has been derailed by my skepticism or my logic has been derailed by my compassion.

Nonetheless, even as I donate to a refugee assistance fund I am asking these questions. When people are drowning and babies are suffering, the time to deliberate and search for answers may well be a luxury. I understand. However, we cannot afford to respond without also thinking about the broader implications of our actions.

Deborah Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, and a contributing editor at the Forward.

[laurenpetro]

i have a lot of feels about this article as well.

i think prioritizing the motives of refugees is pretty... ick. i mean yes, people fleeing war should theoretically be giving priority over people seeking greater economic freedom, but is there much of a question that a great majority of these people are fleeing war? not that i've heard.

i also find it icky that (according to this) israel is witholding aid due to the refugees' country of origin. it seems espeically hypocritial given israel's past.

i heard an interview this morning on The Takeaway (i think. it was early) where the subject proposed bringing back the kindertransport. my heart breaks that we're in this position AGAIN, but i thought it was at the very least a great seed to plant to start a conversation.

[AJL]

Sept 10, 2015 11:14:56 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

i have a lot of feels about this article as well.

i think prioritizing the motives of refugees is pretty... ick. i mean yes, people fleeing war should theoretically be giving priority over people seeking greater economic freedom, but is there much of a question that a great majority of these people are fleeing war? not that i've heard.

i also find it icky that (according to this) israel is witholding aid due to the refugees' country of origin. it seems espeically hypocritial given israel's past.

i heard an interview this morning on The Takeaway (i think. it was early) where the subject proposed bringing back the kindertransport. my heart breaks that we're in this position AGAIN, but i thought it was at the very least a great seed to plant to start a conversation.

Yes, I think you identified what was bothering me about this piece too.

[debatethis]

This reads an awful lot like every "No Skittles for Poor People" article we've ever shared here, except on a more abhorrent scale. And I find it rich that she spends the first bit of the piece talking about how Jews were kept out of the US and ultimately sent to concentration camps just because they were Jewish...but then argues for virtually the same policy because certain refugees just aren't desperate enough.
Ick.

[chedifuen]

I think what I'm picking up is the idea that we need to consider these migrants differently because their Muslim. Ick is right

[ttt]

Sept 10, 2015 11:20:05 GMT -5 @mx said:

I find tremendous irony in the fact that the "migrants" who are being accused of looking for economic gain rather than escaping war are by and large from Afghanistan. Yes that bastion of peace, safety and conflict-free living, Afghanistan.

The second largest group after Afghans are Eritreans. Most of whom are political dissidents likely to be executed or imptisoned if they are returned. Yup just looking to make a buck those greedy bastards.

And certainly the United States and Europe have had no role in Afghanistan's current state.... 

[debatethis]

Also I have to LOL at her fear of "powerful right wing nationalist backlash". No, racist bigots being a'feared of brown dudes is NOT a reason to ban refugees, FFS.

[AJL]

I fucking hate this anti-Muslim bullshit, especially from Jews, because it's crap*. Muslims are not the enemy of Jews not matter what the propaganda mill will try to have us believe.

(*For all you lurkers who may think my statement is anti-Jewish, it's not. I am Jewish. I love being Jewish. I'm also Hispanic and I love tacos.*)

[debatethis]

Sept 10, 2015 11:51:37 GMT -5 @mrsbecky said:

Sept 10, 2015 11:36:08 GMT -5 chedifuen said:

I think what I'm picking up is the idea that we need to consider these migrants differently because their Muslim. Ick is right

Yup. That's the reason this article is rubbing you the wrong way AJL. It's because she's basically saying these aren't the "right" kind of refugees.  

She's also intentionally conflating immigrants with refugees. It's been a decade since I majored in foreign policy but I am preeeettty sure there are specific guidelines and legal definitions for the migration procedures of each group/classification. You know, that would address all her non-concerns.

I'm feeling more than a little ragey at this, in case it wasn't clear.

[pistolshrimp]

This article is disgusting and very rich considering the author's background/family history. Talk about a hypocrite.

[AJL]

I've been stewing on this piece all morning and I'm so angry. I'm even more angry that there are so many people who agree with her. From a religious standpoint, her opinions are in direct conflict to one of our most sacred tenets.

We have such a history of being unwelcome, oppressed, murdered, disenfranchised, marginalized, displaced, and so on that it's anathema to me that any person who calls herself a Jew could rationalize doing the same to another people. If there is just ONE group of people who know what it's like to be a refugee through 5000 years of history, it's us, for the love of matzah!

Not to get all biblical but I'm about to throw down some serious Shemot up in this place (that's Exodus for you non-Jews.)

Exodus 22:20 "And you shall not mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Just a chapter later the good ol' Hashem says it again - "And you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, since you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

According to the Talmud (sacred writings of the sage rabbis), welcoming the stranger theme pops up a whopping 36 times in the Torah. That's a lot. And for a people who want to be seen as a religion/culture/ethnicity, you can't easily extrapolate the word of your philosophy, your whole reason for existing from your narrow minded, ill-conceived, diatribe of fear.

[Deleted]

I kind of understand why no one wants them. For one, Europe and the US has been over there fucking things up for years. When we are not there, things are even fuckier. Theres a lot of confusion - I mean, I don't even know which middle east country is doing what atm - they all seem to be killing each other and themselves and killing people from other countries, all with a big lump of ISIS and Al Queda thrown in the mix, and those dudes are just killing everything only on camera and more horrifically. Meanwhile, the few stable countries in the region are busy doing nothing, and also aren't taking refugees.

So all we have seen for years is Muslims killing muslims who aren't muslim enough while other muslims don't help muslims in fellow muslim countries who are being killed by muslims. Then the USA and Europe swoop in and makes things worse, before buggering off again and the cycle continues.

And then we are meant to be sympathetic and have them come to Europe - which is struggling economically anyway?

Its hardly a surprise if theres not much sympathy going round. Shit, I hardly feel any myself, which is depressing because I thought I was better than that. But after so many years of watching this shit go on and on and on, I just want nothing to do with any of it. I am not proud of it. I just...Im exhausted by the whole thing.

[chedifuen]

I don't mean to be dramatic but I cannot comprehend seeing the footage of the migrants and not feeling sympathy. What they are going through is horrific and by and large they are innocent people with no power to help their situation. We have an obligation to act to prevent further atrocities and possibly genocide.

[NewOrleans]

oh, stfu with this. No, really, lady.

A lot of people in Syrian are Palestinians displaced BY ISRAEL. And they go unhelped by the UN (and Muslim countries) because they are Palestinians and the UN doesn't want to absolve Israel of its role in their displacement. RAGE RAGE RAGE

note: I am a passionate supporter of Israel's right to exist but am equally passionate about how Israel has contributed a Palestinian human rights crisis.

[underwaterrhymes]

She pissed me off right from the start by saying that the refugees were risking their kids' lives by taking these boats.

They are trying to SAVE their children's lives. That it is a risky and dangerous endeavor to attempt this is heartbreaking and shows just how horrific their lives are in their home countries.

There is an overwhelming sense of judgment and hypocrisy throughout the whole article, but those first few sentences really set the tone.

[orriskitten]

It bugged me that she basically there is no solution she supports, but then sits there giving money because she can't seem to find it in her to give a fuck and is too worried about changes that might happen to non-Muslim countries.

I wonder how someone who is educated can question that what these people are doing taking a "strategic opening." Taking a strategic opening doesn't mean getting rid of everything you own and going to camps. That very thought disgusts me. Would someone who has a better or more comfortable choice go the route these refugees are? We must be vigilant and wary of an open-door policy? So to bring it back, should we only help the refugees who might match their destination a la helping Jews who could "pass" during the Holocaust and no one else? Last I checked, I wished with all my heart that every Jew could have been helped.

I don't worry about people integrating because obviously they saw something else that was not working. If they liked it, would they leave? I do think that countries accepting refugees would want to set up assistance for helping newcomers learn the lay of the land, so to speak, but so far I've seen it discussed deeply and organizations working on that very issue. Rights of new residents should not get overlooked. This article feels more like it's saying "don't let these newcomers make ME feel bad. THEY need to accept my rights," again, ick.

The more I think about it and with a couple of re-readings I'm still working through feelings.