The European refugee and migrant crisis
творческая работа учащихся по английскому языку по теме

Lyceum Student Scientific Society

English Language Section

The European

refugee and migrant

 crisis 

Kolegova Alina, 7A

Municipal Edecational Establishment

“Lyceum №6 Gorno-Altaisk”

Guided by:

Popova Kseniya Sergeevnna

Gorno-Altaisk

2016

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..3
2. The European refugee crisis ....................................................................4
3. Why is Europe so unwelcoming to the refugees?………………………7
4. Benefits, that refugee can bring………………………………………...10
5. Opinion Poll……………………………………………………………13
6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………..15
7. Literature………………………………………………………………16
8. Supplement…………………………………………………………….17

Introduction.

         Europe is experiencing one of the most significant influxes of migrants and refugees in its history. Pushed by civil war and terror and pulled by the promise of a better life, hundreds of thousands of people have fled the Middle East and Africa, risking their lives along the way.   .

           The currency of or work is caused by the following factors:

• the great public response of the European Refugee Crises ;
•   the negative consequences of refugees’ behavior;
• the necessity of being ready to accept refugees from neighboring countries in case of worsening of political situation or war actions in Ukraine.

The main goal of our work is to find out why Europe is so unwelcoming to the refugees.

To reach the goal we were:

• to give a definition of refugee crises;
• to find out the main aspects ;
• to learn the pros and cons of this phenomena

Such methods of researching as analysis, comparison and opinion poll were used. 

The European refugee crisis began in 2015, when a rising number of refugees and migrants made the journey to the European Union to seek asylum, travelling across the Mediterranean Sea, or through Southeast Europe. They came from areas such as Western and South Asia, Africa, and the Western Balkans.  

The refugees are people who have been forced to leave their houses for some reason. Typically, such reasons are: wars, political persecution, economic crisis or natural disaster. Governments and the United Nations decide whether a person is a refugee status using the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees.  A person is only classified as a refugee when they are outside their own country.

• An individual may still be a refugee even if nothing bad has happened if they are likely to be persecuted in the future.
• It is not always countries persecuting individuals but groups within countries. An individual becomes a refugee if their country can’t protect them.
• Mostly individual states decide whether an individual is a refugee or not and whether they should receive protection based on the UN Convention.
• Even people who are at risk of persecution may not be recognised as refugees if they have committed serious crimes such as a war crime.

These people have to move to stay alive. Sometimes there are very big flows of refugees, then there are whole refugee camps. Almost always there is a need for clothes, food, water, money.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of February 2016, the top three nationalities of the over one million Mediterranean Sea arrivals since January 2015 are Syrian (48%), Afghani (21%) and Iraqi (9%). Most of the refugees and migrants are adult men (57%), 17% are women and 27% are children.  The phrases "European migrant crisis" and "European refugee crisis" became widely used in April 2015, when five boats carrying almost 2,000 migrants to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea, with a combined death toll estimated at more than 1,200 people. The image of Aylan Kurdi’s body lying on the beach, motionless, with his small head in the water has become the symbol for the current refugee crisis and the inability of Europe to cope with it. He is one of thousands of refugees who did not survive the long and dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea. 

The most direct routes are very dangerous. More than 2,600 people have drowned in the Mediterranean this year trying to reach Greece or Italy in flimsy dinghies or unsafe fishing boats.

Most of those heading for Greece take the relatively short voyage from Turkey to the islands of Kos, Chios, Lesvos and Samos - often in flimsy rubber dinghies or small wooden boats.

Many people travel by boat from Libya to Italy, a longer and more hazardous journey. Survivors often report violence and abuse by people traffickers, who charge thousands of dollars per person for their services. The chaos in Libya has given traffickers freedom to exploit migrants and refugees desperate to reach Europe.

The refugees aspire to Western Europe for many reasons. First, there are more advanced social programs. Secondly, there is a noticeable difference in the standard of living: the income per person of Romanian will be only 30-40% of the capitation income of the German. And, thirdly, migrants are well aware that Eastern Europe is both economically and politically uncomfortable for them.

Europe is currently searching the ways to cope with migrant crisis and uncontrolled migration is a problem that has no solution. The main objective is to establish strict accounting and filtering of refugees and to tighten controls at external borders, to prevent another wave.

Why is Europe so unwelcoming to the refugees?

November 2015 shook the world with Paris Terrorist Attacks. They were a series of coordinated mass shootings and suicide bombings that took place at multiple locations across the Paris Metropolitan Area in France on the evening of November 13th, 2015. As a result of the attacks, at least 129 people have been confirmed as victims of casualties and 415 others who sustained injuries of varying degrees were admitted to hospitals in the area. On November 14th, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the acts of terrorism in retaliation against the ongoing airstrikes in the group’s strongholds in Iraq and Syria. The French government had to straighten its borders and introduced stricter rules for migrants and refugees.

 Europe is going through a period of rising nationalism, selfishness and tragic lack of humanitarian empathy: a challenge for Europe as a whole, which could tear the Union apart and make every country potentially follow an independent national policy rather than a common one. Millions of Africans, Asians and Arabs are flooding Europe due to the open borders and the large sums of money being paid out to anyone without any checks or controls. Refugees try their best to get media sympathy. Because of their great number it’s difficult to distinguish fake refugees that demand lifetime welfare payments, free healthcare and modern houses/apartment. They are permitted to bring family, relatives and their clans. The welfare payment amount equal about 50 times their normal income if they worked in their homeland. The refugees are aware of weak western politicians afraid to say NO, scared of being accused of "racism" or stop the benefits, so they demand more and more until they get everything they demand. Locals call refugees "demand machines" since they never stop demanding more. The refugee crisis is a great threat to the European economics and there is no way out. It’s impossible to send all the refugees back home. The near-term costs of managing the flow of refugees, providing them with housing, health care, education and other social assistance, and resettling and integrating them into new societies are great. Germany, by far the preferred destination for the migrants, expects to spend $6.6 billion this year alone. Turkey, which is not in the EU but houses more refugees than any other country (many of whom are making their way into EU countries) says it has spent $7.6 billion so far this year. (Turkey may get some help from the EU, which has pledged to spend at least $1.1 billion to aid nations bordering Syria that are housing millions of refugees from that country’s civil war.)

Entering stable and peaceful countries, whether legally or illegally, instead of settling into that so-called “better life,” many refugees transplant the violence to their new homes. While there are those who are truly seeking refuge, too many troublemakers are in the mix, generating a recurring theme of crime, violence, and even terrorism. The refugee crises raised the level of crimes in Europe: the majority of crimes committed by refugees consist of theft, robbery and fraud. Sex crimes made for less than 1 percent of all crimes committed by refugees, while homicide registered the smallest fraction at 0,1 percent. Refugees from Iraq and Syria as well as from the Balkans were also more likely to commit crimes than from other countries of origin.

The peak of the criminal activities occurred on December 31, when numerous women in Cologne  and other German cities were robbed, threatened and sexually assaulted by small groups of aggressive men, allegedly of Arab and North African origin. The German police registered a total of 561 complaints so far. Following the attacks, German authorities announced plans to ease deportation procedures for migrants who have committed crimes.

Another problem, that cannot be ignored, is so-called Muslim patrols. Their members confront passers-by shouting "this is a Muslim area"  and "Islam will take over the world". They demand to conform to Sharia law and Islamic rules. They target prostitutes, people drinking alcohol, couples who are holding hands, women whom they consider to be dressed immodestly. They sincerely believe that Muslim patrols can never be stopped. They enforce their culture to the country that became their shelter. Of course, it provokes anger of the locals and, taking into account all of the above, it’s not surprising that the number of registered attacks against refugee accommodations and asylum seekers is constantly growing. Severe crimes such as arson, bombings and assault are the most common. Besides, there is a shocking grow of popularity of nationalist movements.

Benefits, that refugee can bring.

In 2016, everybody is talking about the migrants fleeing war, torture and abject misery to seek sanctuary and refuge in Europe. It’s impossible to ignore distraught faces of families who have survived the treacherous sea passage to reach safety tell us what we need to know; no-one risks their life and the lives of their children unless they sense death at their heels.

Nonetheless, the sheer numbers of refugees and migrants coming to Europe – over one million in 2015 – can be alarming, especially for those already struggling to provide for their families or to access the basic services they need. How can they share when they do not have enough themselves?

Counter-intuitively, the answer is not easy, but refugees can benefit everyone, including vulnerable and disadvantaged groups already living in Europe.

By working together, the diverse nationalities, cultures, religious or non-religious and ethnic groups which make up local communities create new opportunities and greater resources.

Migrants bring new knowledge, ideas and experience. And they create jobs. OECD studies show that the contribution to employment creation by immigrants increased steadily over the first decade of this century and that foreign-born entrepreneurs can help boost urban and rural areas at risk of economic decline.

It is essential to create the right conditions to empower the innovators.

But, can this really be done in times of crisis?  Over the last decade, the Council of Europe has seen many such local miracles across its 70-strong network of Intercultural Cities. The Intercultural City programme is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. It stimulates new ideas and practice in relation to the integration of migrants and minorities. 

Councils, businesses, civil society and community associations decide together on policies concerning anything from planning and housing to education and media relations.  Open, urban spaces are designed to encourage interaction between inhabitants and the development of new, creative solutions to social problems. Even migrants from poor, uneducated communities may contribute, by, for example, suggesting new ways to care for alienated teenagers, the elderly and patients with Alzheimer’s, which prioritize human contact. 

 Intercultural Cities generate greater trust, openness and tolerance, a decrease in the intensity of conflict and improved urban safety. They bring dynamism, innovation, creativity and growth. The benefits are both economic and social. Take the unaccompanied minor arriving from Angola in Parla, Spain, who later developed a project to integrate young people into Spanish society through capoeira; or the migrants in Geneva being integrated through work as school assistants; or, the ‘Tek-Stil’ art project in Berlin, which is regenerating the local textile industry by bringing together young designers and migrant seamstresses.

The intercultural approach is the most effective way to manage cultural diversity. It validates different cultures, ideas and beliefs within an overarching human rights framework, avoiding both the stifling conformism of assimilation and the moral relativism of multiculturalism.

And, by promoting dialogue and interaction, it ensures minority groups are not confined to ghettos, where they are either left relying on humanitarian aid – which the state concerned is obliged to provide – or accused of breaking the law for working within the informal economy or of taking jobs from local people. Instead of donating, the local population benefit; instead of receiving, refugees give back to society.

What’s more, the ongoing surge of refugees into Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other war-ravaged countries presents a striking demographic contrast: hundreds of thousands of predominantly young people trying to get into a region where the population is older than in almost any other place on earth.  It could be a long-term benefitS to an aging Europe, renewing the supply of younger workers on whom the continent’s retirees depend. 

All in all, the countries, where they try to find new life, have a duty to provide sanctuary for those seeking asylum. And, when they arrive, migrants have the same human rights as native citizens. In return, they too must respect the human rights of others and Europe’s laws.

Opinion Poll:   “The refugee crisis is endangering the EU”.

We conducted an opinion poll among the pupils of 8-11 forms in our lyceum. 64 schoolchildren took part in it. The results of the poll show that the respondents are quite aware of the refugee crises in Europe. Let’s see what we found out.

1. Do you monitor the situation in Europe?

2. Should European countries close its borders for refugees to avoid economic crises?

3. Is it fair that, that the country that gives asylum for the refugees, has to provide them with social benefits, job and accommodation?

Conclusion.

The problem or refugee influx to Europe stays unsolved. The European Union Commission considers it unconstitutional to limit the number of refugee. But in practice, many countries are closing national borders; others strive to be responsible and aware of its influence in Europe. 

We think the most important thing to resolve the crisis is bringing peace and stability to the Middle East and North Africa. Only in this case, people will be able to return to their motherland. We can’t deny the benefits the refugee integration may bring, but negative points of their residence in asylum are overwhelming.  In this situation, the European borders should be opened, but there is a necessity in a better plan of integration as well as in intensity of the control at the boarders, in order not to allow terrorists to the territory.  

Literature.

1. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286
2. http://www.star-network.org.uk/index.php/refugees/who_is_a_refugee
3. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/08/refugee-surge-brings-youth-to-an-aging-europe/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_migrant_crisis
5. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-08/what-you-need-to-know-about-europe-s-refugee-crisis-q-a
6. http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/over-1-million-arrivals-in-europe-by-sea-unhcr-115123000668_1.html
7. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis
8. http://www.ft.com/migration