The family was living through the first refugee crisis in history in which people without countries or homes could communicate instantaneously with one another. Previous generations of refugees often ached for any information about relatives, but now messages zipped back and forth around the world on free apps. The joy of such regular communication came at a steep cost: constant updates on the misery of relatives left behind, intensifying worry and impeding progress for those trying to carve out a new life.
.. But thanks in large part to cellphones and social media, Canadians with no prior connection to the Middle East were getting glimpses into the well of desperation that was the refugee crisis.
.. delighted by things Canadians took for granted — new pencils, popcorn at the movies, a soccer goal with a net.
.. The Hajjes were supposed to be self-sufficient by next February, but she feared they had virtually no chance of succeeding. They could not fill out a permission slip, read a medicine label, pay a bill or navigate the subway to a new destination on their own.
.. “No matter how hard he tries, he may never really speak English well, and that will really limit him,”
.. The Canadian women saw sponsorship like a life raft: If you overloaded it, you risked sinking those you were trying to rescue.
Obama’s Death Sentence for Young Refugees
In effect, we have pressured and bribed Mexico to do our dirty work, detaining and deporting people fleeing gangs in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. This solved a political crisis that Obama faced with refugees in 2014, but it betrays some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The American-Mexican collusion began in 2014 after a surge of Central Americans crossed into the U.S., including 50,000 unaccompanied children. Obama spoke with Peña Nieto “to develop concrete proposals” to address the flow. This turned out to be a plan to intercept Central Americans near Mexico’s southern border and send them home.
.. So what should the U.S. do? Most important, it must work at the highest levels with Honduras and El Salvador to address the chaos in those countries, particularly because the U.S. bears some responsibility for the problems: The Central American street gangs were born in the United States and traveled with deportees to countries like El Salvador.
New Fences on the Old Continent: Refugee Crisis Pushes Europe to the Brink
Merkel has begun warning of the EU’s disintegration “into small states” that will be unable to compete in a globalized world, as well as of the possibility that border controls might soon be reintroduced all across Europe.
Were Europe in agreement, it would be unproblematic to accommodate 2-3 million refugees, given the Continent’s population of a half billion people. From such a perspective, the current spat actually seems somewhat ridiculous. But in the run up to next week’s EU summit, Europe is gripped by strife. Europe’s greatest achievement, the opening of its borders through the Schengen agreement, is at stake, and the increasingly toxic atmosphere between countries has reached alarming dimensions.
.. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in turn warned Greece that if the country didn’t move to secure its borders that, “there will be one single hotspot and it will be called Greece.” Perhaps, he added, it may be necessary to sacrifice Greece for the sake of Europe’s well-being.
.. Europe’s weakness, though, is also the product of a Germany that is having trouble fitting into its leadership role on the Continent. For decades, German politicians have sought to eschew expressing Germany’s own interests, instead emphasizing what is best for Europe and trying to be the best Atlanticists possible, exercising restraint when it came to their role in the EU.
.. This changed during the euro crisis. Merkel took advantage of the country’s economic strength in order to pursue German interests.
.. Although Merkel, like many others, initially pushed for the distribution of the refugees across the EU, the German chancellor is now emphasizing border protection as the highest priority.
.. This is why the Greek prime minister has involved the last institution in his country that is still able to act reliably and quickly: the military. Greek soldiers are now to erect tent camps and repurpose barracks as provisional living spaces in Athens, Thessaloniki and elsewhere.
.. He says there was never a time when Greek officials simply “waved refugees through,” as they have been accused of doing. “What are we supposed to do if they don’t want to be here?” he asks.
.. The correct answer only comes following a bit of friendly assistance from the interpreter: “Because we want to ask for asylum in Germany.” “Five for Germany,” the policeman calls out, and waves the Syrians through.
Wrong answers at this point in the journey would be: “I want to go to Germany to work as a teacher,” or “because my brother lives there.” Those who slip up, even just once, are sent back to Slovenia, and from there, if they don’t apply for asylum, onwards to Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Greece.
.. In most formerly communist EU member states, the electorates are largely xenophobic and the belief is widespread that refugees would bring epidemics, terrorism and Sharia law into their countries. The influx, many in Eastern Europe believe, is but the advance guard of an expansive Islam seeking to take over the Christian West.
.. The construction of Fortress Europe, which was never supposed to be built, is quite far along in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans. There are fences between Turkey and Bulgaria, between Hungary and Serbia and between Greece and Macedonia. Slovenia has once again begun using Yugoslavia-era customs barracks on the Austrian border.
.. The idea of establishing mandatory refugee quotas for EU member states is dead. Instead, Ankara is to be offered that a “Coalition of the Willing” will accept refugees directly from Turkey, but only after the border is secured — if the country agrees to take back economic migrants.
.. According to a European Commission report, the reintroduction of internal border controls within the Schengen area would reduce EU economic output over a 10-year period by between €500 billion and €1.4 trillion. Just the direct costs for border controls will cost between €5 billion and €18 billion annually.
.. In the concert of large geopolitical powers, individual European countries do not have a loud voice, not even Germany. The United States and China are only interested in the EU as a whole. Size is decisive. If Europe is unable to present itself as a unity, it will be marginalized.
.. The trip took 25 days and was so stressful that Doaa stopped lactating. Her sister Walaa heads off in search of powdered milk.
.. Doaa says that she is so agitated that she can’t sleep anymore, adding that, from what she has seen so far, she isn’t particularly fond of Greece. She says it’s disgusting here and that she has tried to avoid visiting the restrooms. Instead of eating, she smokes.
Friends and Refugees in Need
one in every 122 people on the planet today is “fleeing a conflict” at a time when wars between nations “are at a record low,” said Miliband, a former British foreign secretary. Why? Because we now have nearly 30 civil wars underway in weak states that are “unable to meet the basic needs of citizens or contain civil war.”
.. More and more countries are now sealing their borders, and anti-immigrant parties are rising everywhere. Sweden has imposed border controls, and its ultranationalist Sweden Democrats party has grown from the fringe to one of the largest. Many in Germany, Sweden and Austria, which have accepted the lion’s share of refugees so far, want to seal off Greece from the E.U.’s passport-free internal travel zone if Greece — the first port of entry of many refugees — is unable or unwilling to hold them.
In the past few days, The Guardian reported, national leaders and top E.U. officials warned “that Europe’s passport-free travel zone could crumble within weeks, risking the dissolution of the union.”