Han Jun Park 201521630

May15, 2016
Professor Vincent
Should countries accept refugees actively?
Recently, the picture of one refugee girl named Kurdi became an issue online. She
was drowned by the refugee ship accident at Mississippi River. Refugee problems became a
hot issue by this one picture and many people felt much sympathy for that girl and refugees
around the world (Walsh, 1). Many refugees are dying every year and these problems are
getting worse. However, countries cannot accept refugees just because of sympathy they feel.
Many problems might occur by accepting them.
First, many social problems will occur. To start with, many crimes might happen.
Actually in Germany, the crime rates increased dramatically last year after accepting refugees
actively. The number of crimes committed by refugees was more than 200,000 (Hall, 1). It
was more than twice as the number two years before. In addition, much social discrimination
might occur. As refugees are different to local people, they might be treated differently to
local people and mostly in bad ways. Refugees can get socially alienated at school or
workplace. For example, 11 year old Syrian refugee boy who lives in Lebanon interviewed
that he was getting bullied by Lebanon students and cannot concentrate on learning (Maroun,
1). At last, social tension might be made. Refugees get lots of benefits from governments
which is not available to local people. This inequality will lead to social tension between
local people and refugees. Many local people might be unsatisfied of this situation and
complain about it. Some of them might even blame government for this inequality. For
instance, many local people might complain about the basic livelihood and lots of educations
offered to refugees because there are also many local people who cannot even live a basic life
and get a chance of education.
Second, many economical problems will occur. At first, massive amount of money

are spent by accepting refugees. Money that is spent to refugees is mostly from taxes of local
people. As a result, quality of local peoples lives will decline. For example, Germany which
accepted 1.2 million refugees last year spent 2.2 billion Euros. This is massive amount of
money. Whats more, as population grows by influx of refugees, chances of getting a job or
education will decrease. For example, number of students who want to go to college will
increase and cause competition harder than before. Lastly, increased number of population
will lead to lack of resources and commodities, therefore cause a price rise. For instance, the
price of products in Jordan rose a lot because of the Syrian refugees entering the countries
each day(Madanat, 1).
Lastly, many cultural problems will occur. To start with, religious problems are the
most serious problems among lots of cultural problems. Most of the refugees are Muslims;
however some countries have bad perception to Muslims (Data team, 1). Therefore, many
conflicts and crimes happen because of religious difference. For example, Muslim refugees
increased crime in Germany by 65 percentages (Greenfield, 1). Additionally, there will be lots
of troubles educating refugees and also many conflicts because of many cultural differences
beside religions. For instance, refugees can have troubles eating foods or wearing costumes.
If local people and refugees do not understand and respect each others cultures, there might
be lots of conflicts. Lastly as many refugees come from different countries and have different
cultures, the value of traditional culture can be degraded. For example, as many local people
meet different cultures, they can often forget and ignore their own traditional cultures. .
As I mentioned above, many problems occur by accepting refugees. So, countries
cannot accept refugees easily just because of sympathy for them. People should not just
ignore the growing number of refugees and their situations. Countries around the world
should discuss about these serious problems actively and try to find proper alternatives.
Works Cited
- Walsh, Bryan Alan Kurdis Story: Behind The Most Heartbreaking Photo of 2015
http://time.com/4162306/alan-kurdi-syria-drowned-boy-refugee-crisis/ 29, Dec, 2015. Web.

15, June, 2016.

- Hall, Allan Germanys migrant crisis: Refugees committed more than 200,000crimes last
year http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/644827/refugees-committed-crimes-Germanymigrant-crisis-last-year 17, Feb, 2016. Web. 15, June, 2016
- Maroun, Sandy Discrimination and bullying makes learning hard for Syrian refugees in
Lebanon http://www.wvi.org/meero/article/discrimination-and-bullying-makes-learninghard-syrian-refugees-lebanon 11, Dec, 2013. Web. 15, June, 2016
- Madanat, Hay Impact of Refugees on Societies
https://blog.hopesforwomen.org/2013/01/29/impacts-of-refugees-on-societies-by-hayamadanat/ 29, Jan, 2013. Web. 15, June, 2016
-Data team Islam in Europe: perception and reality
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/03/daily-chart-15 Mar, 23, 2016. Web.
15, June, 2016
-Greenfield, Daniel Muslim migrants increase crime in Germany by 65%
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/260393/muslim-migrants-increase-crime-germany-65daniel-greenfield Oct, 8, 2015. Web. 15, June, 2015