Mass Exodus and 20/20 Hind Sight

Posted on September 10, 2015 by breisebreiseleighgoleire1969

Picture via BBC Europe Migrant Crisis: How Are Countries Coping?
Little did I think that a blog post I wrote just over two months ago, Moving to Ireland, would
become a hot topic. It was a small idea, a blog post written more out of wishful thinking and
curiosity than a BIG idea with political and social mindfulness at its core.
Moving to Ireland has become more than just the notion of packing your bags and knowing
that you need almost $24,000 as annual disposable income. Now that people are jumping
on top of the channel tunnel trains, drowning off-shore of Turkey, Greece and Italy, moving
from one European Union country to another has escalated far beyond $24,000 per annum
disposable income.
Lets face it, this type of migration is not voluntary, it is life or death, as witnessed in the
hundreds of people drowned, suffocated in trucks, or killed by trains. This is not just a house
move, or a relocation; this is a Mass Exodus of people who are willing to risk their lives for a
better life away from their homeland. This mass exodus brings out the best and the worst in
host countries.

Picture Via Time.com: What You Need to Know about Europes Migrant Crisis

But whats the point of moving to a country where unemployment is high, the cost of living is
even higher, and the natives dont want you in the first place? Maybe the point is that what
these migrants are leaving behind is so much worse. Is opening up the borders the answer?
According to Hamish de Bretton Gordon, Managing Director CBRN of Avon Protection
Systems, Were Missing The Point. The solution, de Bretton Gordon says, is not opening
up Europes borders; its defeating ISIL and removing Assad from power.
The refugee problem in Europe is of our own making, he says. It is a direct result of our
inactivity towards Syria, ignoring the perceived and stated red lines on the use of
chemical weapons after the Ghouta chemical attack in August 2013. The attack killed up to
1,500 people when, government forces fired rockets with chemical warheads into
Damascus suburbs. Hind sight is 20/20.

Picture Via: European Movement Ireland: Just the Facts: Europes Migrant Crisis
The issue of thousands of people showing up at your doorstep, many without passports or
identification, is not going away, even if Assad goes away. Refugees come from war-torn
countries, escaping persecution. They are legally entitled to international protection. For
some migrants proving refugee status will be difficult without the proper ID. Who gets to
stay and who gets sent back becomes a murky issue. It becomes one involving the
distinction between refugee, irregular migrant, and economic migrant. It is then further
complicated by Contonou Agreement and the UNHCRs Non-Refoulement.
As stated in the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, No Contracting State
shall expel or return (refouler) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of
territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Most recently the European Agenda on Migration addressed the current immigrant crisis.

On paper, the European Agenda on Migration May 13, 2015 sounds beautiful, humanitarian
and idealistic:
Europe should continue to be a safe haven for those fleeing persecution as well as an
attractive destination for the talent and entrepreneurship of students, researchers and
workers. Upholding our international commitments and values while securing our borders
and at the same time creating the right conditions for Europes economic prosperity and
societal cohesion is a difficult balancing act that requires coordinated action at the
European level.
A difficult balancing act indeed. Ireland, the UK and Denmark can choose whether they wish
to be part of the EU Quota Scheme to adequately and fairly relocate refugees and migrants
among member states. Why choice is an option for these three countries, I dont know. But
Ireland and England are accepting large numbers of refugees into their general populations.
But is it enough?
According to the BBC, the Irish government announced it would take in 4,000 refugees a
figure that includes 1,120 people Ireland had already agreed to receive. The UK will accept
20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. And as of today, Denmarks reaction to Germanys no-limit
refugee quota was to shut down rail service, ferry service and a motorway for several hours
whilst a standoff between police and 350 refugees, mostly from Syria and Iraq, played itself
out.
According to MSN News, German generosity has sparked an angry backlash, but not just
from its eastern neighbors. For it is the difficult balancing act of economic prosperity and
societal cohesion that brings out the worst in the natives of host countries in Europe. In
2008 most European countries entered into deep economic recessions, and now, barely
emerging from that fog, their populations expand, and with it the economic demand to care
for new refugees. In other words, where will the money come from to house, feed, clothe
and educate the growing numbers of refugees. Realistically, making their homeland safe
again for their return is the best answer. But can it be done?

Picture Via: Global News The European Migrant Crisis is Getting Worse. Heres What You
Need To Know
I suppose my questions, like Hamish de Bretton Gordons, are these: Why didnt
governments intervene earlier? Apart from being bamboozled by Syrias first lady who threw
corporate lingo around at leisure, apart from watching the Arab Spring as if it were all
happening so far away it would never effect us negatively; why didnt the Ghouta chemical
attack in August 2013 cause more of a Global reaction?
Hind sight is 20/20. Ten years from now what will be the situation in Syria, Iraq and Europe?
Is opening the borders the answer, or is defeat of dictatorships the answer? I suppose it
depends on who takes the dictators place.
Many years ago I sat in a classroom along with many other journalism students. We were
led in discussion by our professor who prompted a debate on the shooting of a 9 year old
Mexican boy crossing the border into the USA.
I remembered a 2002 documentary by Michael Palin, Sahara. He discussed the
treacherous swim that North Africans made to get to southern European shores. Clothes
discarded and hidden along the beach, these migrants were swimming to freedom. Some
didnt make it; their bodies washing up on the shore. Just like the 9 year old boy who was
trying to make a run for it, to a better life across the border.
I was shocked at how many young people in the classroom were against illegal immigration.
I remember saying that borders were imaginary lines on paper maps. They mean nothing to
people hungry for a better way of life. People have migrated for eons, and will continue to
do so. But the recent migration crisis in Europe is so huge, so immense, there is no
acclimatization period. It is immediate.

What struck me most about the classroom that day, was that we were all immigrants.
Maybe off the boat, or second or third generation immigrants. But we were all from
somewhere else.
Example 1 of the Worst of Human Behavior in Migrant Crisis in Europe

Hungarian TV camerawoman Petra Laszlo kicks a running child as refugees flee border
police near the Serbian border with Hungary (Picture via MSNBC.com)
Example Number 1 of the BEST of Human Behavior

People hold a banner refugees welcome as they take part in a demonstration in solidarity
with refugees seeking asylum in Europe after fleeing their home countries in Stockholm,
Sweden, on September 12, 2015.
(Picture Via: MSN News.com)