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All of this talk about the Syrian refugees...

  • poll: Do you think the US should be allowing/inviting Syrian refugees into the country?
    No. I think there's potentially too much of a security risk for Americans to do so. : (22 votes)
    12 %
    Absolutely. We must offer support to those who are also fleeing terrorism. : (135 votes)
    71 %
    I'm undecided. It's a tricky situation. : (32 votes)
    17 %
  1. JoJoGirl

    cantaloupe / 6206 posts

    @Maysprout: Yep, i totally agree. I mean with no welfare, food stamps, etc. And I'd support them utilizing those programs too, if they needed them.

    Anyone else see this today? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/18/france-says-it-will-take-30000-syrian-refugees-while-u-s-republicans-would-turn-them-away/

  2. avivoca

    watermelon / 14467 posts

    @JoJoGirl: Thanks for posting that article. It just reaffirms to me what a-holes people in this country are being. If France, the country who was terrorized just last week, can put aside their pain and help those who need help, why can't we?

  3. Synchronicity

    grapefruit / 4089 posts

    @.twist.: a thousand times yes to everything you said. The comments I've seen on social media... I have zero patience for it at this point. We are SO incredibly lucky to have been born in Canada, and most of us don't have the slightest clue about what these people have gone through. Show some fucking compassion.

  4. Jess1483

    nectarine / 2641 posts

    2% of refugees are men of fighting age. I found this article really interesting.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/17/3-important-facts-about-how-the-u-s-resettles-syrian-refugees/

  5. erinbaderin

    pomelo / 5573 posts

    @Synchronicity: I shared this post on Facebook, from somebody named Hijal De Sarkar, that might help you respond to comments:

    I acknowledge that good, well-meaning people who genuinely care about Syrian refugees can have perfectly valid concerns about the security risk of bringing in tens of thousands of people from a war zone. It is as large an undertaking as it sounds.

    So, I did some research and here are some facts:

    1. Refugees coming to Canada will undergo three separate screening processes.

    First, they are selected from those screened by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The UNHCR uses sophisticated anti-fraud tools like biometrics.

    Second, they are interviewed before coming to Canada.

    Third, once in Canada, they are screened by Canada's security services.

    Thanks to these precautions, security experts say the chances of an ISIS terrorist getting through are infinitesimal.

    2. Canada is prioritizing families (particularly female-headed households), unaccompanied minors and the sick, not single individuals.

    These groups were selected because they pose the least risk of radicalization.

    3. Not accepting refugees is an even greater threat to national security.

    According to leading experts in national security, terrorism, radicalization and intelligence like Munk School of Public Affairs Prof. Wesley Wark and Georgetown University Prof. Anne Speckhard, filthy and unsafe refugee camps are hotbeds for extremism.

    Perhaps not surprisingly, terrorists find it remarkably easy to recruit fighters in squalid and hopeless camps teeming with desperate and disenfranchised people.

    According to Prof. Speckhard: “Experience from many conflict zones teaches us that the longer these refugees are left to languish in despair in camps the more prone they become to radicalization.”

    4. Accepting refugees strikes a blow at ISIS.

    ISIS relies on extortion and the taxes they collect from the vast swaths of territory they control. “They want to stop the refugee process because one of their main sources of income in the ISIS-controlled territory is taxation of the people there, extortion of the people there," according to University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes.

    If, in light of these new facts, you still want to talk about security as a reason for keeping Syrian refugees out, you need to acknowledge that you're not afraid of terrorists, you're afraid of brown people.

    http://globalnews.ca/…/should-canada-stop-bringing-in-syri…/

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/…/how-dragging-our-feet-on-refuge…

    http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/trudeau-wants-to-stick-to-jan-1-…

  6. .twist.

    pineapple / 12802 posts

    @erinbaderin: I saw that one! So, so, true.

  7. lamariniere

    pineapple / 12566 posts

    @cookiemomster: here's another good article about the possible economic impact of the Syrian refugees. http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-economics-of-syrian-refugees?intcid=mod-latest

  8. jedeve

    pomegranate / 3643 posts

    @.twist.: ugh, the homeless thing. My masters thesis was on homelessness. People"like" to "help" homeless people by giving them socks at Christmas and tut tutting the rest of the year. The "we have to help our own poor first" argument drives me crazy. There are awful horrors of being homeless (I've watched grown men with cancer cry after a college student spit on them). But people saying shit like that don't really want to help homeless people. Why? Because it's easier to pretend like it's some insurmountable problem that the socks just don't seem to be helping, but aww shucks will try again next year. There is tons of research on how to actually end homelessness. It wasn't such a problem in the U.S. until the 1980s when community health centers were defended and single room occupancy housing was done away with. Then homelessness increased something like six fold. Housing first models have done wonders in reducing homelessness. Why aren't they more common? Because people don't actually like helping. People don't like helping people who they don't think of as deserving. And it really gets my goat.

  9. .twist.

    pineapple / 12802 posts

    @jedeve: Oh yes. This only started social media waves once people a. found out we were bringing in more refugees than originally planned; and b. the Paris attacks happened. It is not about homelessness, it's about finding an excuse and a reason NOT to take on refugees. These people are throwing words at their computer screens and not actually getting off their asses to do anything and I just can't even take it.

  10. yoursilverlining

    eggplant / 11824 posts

    @jedeve: <cheers> for your post. People don't actually want to help end homelessness - that is so true. Not if it costs them any time, money, effort or resources. Or *might* cost them those things. It also galls me to NO END to see most of these posts about how we should help our homeless veterans first and not refugees coming from the same political party which has squarely voted down more than 5 efforts in the past 5 years that would have directly impacted and reduced veteran homelessness, all because they were put forward by the other political party - even though some, like the 2010 Homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children act - had broad multi-party support originally. All because God forbid you work with Obama. But yes, please tell me again how much you really care about homelessness in America and how you think it should be ended. Please tell me what you've done to help homeless veterans in the past 5 years, especially after defeating every bill aimed at helping them.

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