The human migration taking place in Europe today is the greatest one seen since World War II. As I contemplate the logistics and general impact of this crisis, it leaves me fearful of what is happening in the world, and it brings immigration closer to home, here in the United States.
Let’s look at the refugee crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries are willing to risk their lives for something better than what they have now, starting out on a journey they may never complete, just to get away from the killing, poverty and insecurity they live with in their country of origin.
They are no different than the Hondurans, Venezuelans, and other South Americans trying to get into the U.S. They are doing the same thing, trying to escape from the violence, poverty and insecurity of Central America and Mexico.
We’re talking about people from underdeveloped countries. We in the U.S., UK, Canada and most European countries forget sometimes we are living in industrialized and developed nations. We are very well off compared to nations like Syria, Iraq and Pakistan, Colombia and Mexico.
What I find sort of amusing is that we are quick to donate $10 or $20 to help in this crisis, yet if someone were to ask anyone of us to take in a refugee, we would draw a line, saying, “Let someone else take care of the problem.”
Then we have the political climate in this country. It has fallen into a name-calling, anti-immigration, and finger-pointing battle of words, fueled by ridiculous claims of immigrants being murderers, possible terrorists, and rapists. I won’t bore anyone with the statistics that prove the claims to be false, but they are untrue.
I guess I worry the most about our loss of human compassion. I sometimes wonder exactly when we lost our humanity. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. Did it start with the Vietnam conflict? Were we made immune to killing and dead bodies when television brought the war into our living rooms?
I can remember vividly the planes plowing into the towers on 9/11, and the fearfulness I felt watching the bombing of Iraq, all on television, live as it happened. Did these events impact us negatively, making us numb to adversity in others?
I worry about so many people not caring anymore. We don’t care about much of anything. We watch violence on the streets, children killing other children, mothers killing their babies, and what do we do? Nothing. We don’t seem to care. And it has spread to the immigrant crisis, not just here in the U.S. But across the world.
Our politicians are staying closed-mouthed on the immigrant crisis going on in Europe, probably for fear that it will affect their ratings at the polls. I know, some people say we can’t continue taking in all the world’s less fortunate, but Germany, Austria, Canada and a few other countries have opened their doors.
But we are not alone in being anti-immigrant today. The Czech president doesn’t want immigrants in his country, and neither does Hungary. And forget about countries in the Mideast. We can’t even get very many of them to help us with battling ISIS.
Perhaps the reason we don’t want them is because they don’t speak English? That’s the latest political gimmick going around this week. Donald Trump and Sarah Palin tell us, “if you live in this country, you should speak American.” If you look different, speak or dress different, you’re not one of us.
