Refugees, Reason, Risk, and Right (or, "Fear is the Mind-Killer")

[medicmsh]

This, in response to lots of fearful bellowing about how refugees from Syria are disguised terrorists & how right-thinking people should refuse to permit their entry into the US. I have ALL the disagreement with this

Comments

[rowyn]

This is a good post. I don't know that I agree on all the details (eg, on the effectiveness of training refugees to go back to their countries to fight). But it's still a much better case than "refugees might be terrorists so CLOSE THE BORDERS FOREVER", or the even worse "we won't let refugees into our state even if they're legal immigrants". x_x

[medicmsh]

Thanks for reading, & thinking about, these ideas. Thanks also for saying "I disagree with the following specifics"!

[rowyn]

There are many many topics on which I don't feel qualified to say "this is what I think will/won't work". For example, I don't actually have a lot of confidence that our screening/vetting process would keep out a terrorist who was posing as a refugee to get into the country. (OTOH, I don't know that "posing as a refugee" would be the path of least resistance even in a situation where we're expediting the process of taking in Syrian refugees. Certainly under the usual process, I expect it'd be easier for a terrorist to get in as, say, a student than as a refugee

[medicmsh]

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. & I'm sure we don't agree on everything! We don't have to.

[howlin_wolf_66]

So very well said! :-) I'm from the U.K, not U.S. - but I've always said that I'd rather let 10 people in, and have one be 'bad', than to let nobody in... It's about doing the right thing, and if that means a little more risk, then so be it. Risk can be calculated.

[medicmsh]

Thank you for posting! I'm similarly baffled by the discussions of this topic which handwave both the risk calculation AND the risk mitigation aspects of the issue.

[howlin_wolf_66]

There's always a middle-ground, if one thinks logically. :-)