Welcome to the refugees

If the latest survey is to be believed, 80 percent of the world would gladly accept refugees. In a survey of 27 countries conducted by Amnesty International, researchers called or went to the doors of about 1,000 people in each country, distributed evenly among age, gender, education and locations based on the respective national census. Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with two statements: “People should be able to take refuge in other countries to escape from war or persecution,” and “Our government should do more to help refugees fleeing war or persecution.” They were then asked how closely they would “personally accept” refugees, giving them the options of allowing them into their household, neighborhood, city, or country, or refusing refugees entry entirely. Perhaps not surprisingly, countries like China and Spain, which have barely taken in any refugees, are on the top of the list. What is surprising is that the countries that have, including Greece and Germany – which has allowed more than a million migrants to enter - remain up there as well. The Amnesty survey suggests that people in several countries with large numbers of refugees would still welcome more of them, with Greece (65) and Jordan (61) being in the top 10 of the index. Even a xenophobic country like the US was the ninth-most accepting country on the list. For now, the migrant crisis in Europe is over. The stunning flow of more than one million people through the eastern Mediterranean that we saw last year has been stopped. But that doesn't mean there aren't people suffering or that millions from the Middle East and Africa have stopped the desperate search for opportunity. If the survey is correct, there is still moral room for these downtrodden. The survey belies the general belief that people in Europe, where more than one million refugees flooded, and the US do not particularly like refugees, do not agree with their governments welcoming them with open arms, and want no more to come in. They are concerned about refugees taking jobs in countries which already have high unemployment figures. And they are deeply concerned about terrorists infiltrating their countries. This could easily happen in a country like Syria which, while it is producing the most refugees, is partially  controlled by Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS), the group whose violence is forcing Syrians to become refugees. It is entirely possible that Daesh terrorists from Syria could embed themselves within the masses of refugees. While all refugees entering the West are vetted as much as is humanly possible, no machine has ever been invented to vet what is in someone’s head or heart and what his or her ultimate aims are. Last year in particular there was a lot of political language about fear. Governments played short-term politics with the lives of people fleeing war and repression and too often used xenophobic anti-refugee rhetoric to chase approval polls. But if we go by the survey, governments are badly out of touch with the views of their own citizens. The survey gives a voice to the silent majority. Those against taking in refugees have had their say in the media and on the Internet. The value of this survey is to make governments aware that that is not the majority opinion, though it will be interesting to see what people say in a year’s time when refugees have settled in and acclimatized themselves to their new societies. Apparently, Westerners are willing to go to astonishing lengths to welcome refugees in their own country. They are ready to make refugees welcome. This survey confirms that the underlying mood of the people is positive toward refugees.