CONNOR HOFFMAN
Staff Writer
Since 2013 Syria has been embedded in a civil war, leading to both the rise of ISIS and many citizens becoming refugees. Fredonia held a panel last Thursday to clear up some confusion surrounding the issue and show everyone the troubles these refugees have experienced.
The panel was composed of Dr. Ivani Vassoler of the Department of Politics and International Affairs and Dr. Jacqueline Swansinger of the Department of History.
Swansinger opened up the panel and explained how its main mission was to show the audience the human face behind the refugee crisis. She started off by presenting the history behind refugees and how the Middle East has gotten into this situation before going into the history of the term refugee and how it has evolved.
“[The term] ‘refugee’ has become way more complicated, and we don’t always think about it or discuss it that way,” said Swansinger. “What it used to mean is, quite literally, you were going from where you were from to a new place, and you were begging them to let you in.”
She explained the problem is that sometimes when we talk about refugees, we talk about them with other kinds of immigrants and don’t emphasize enough how different these immigrants were.
Swansinger then went into more of the recent history and how other countries have dealt with these refugees. She said that 27 percent of the world’s refugees now are from the Middle East. She also explained that the nearby Middle Eastern countries take in the majority of these refugees.
She ended by saying that these countries that are taking in the refugees might be reaching an unsustainable point and that they need help.
“We may be reaching a point where some decisions — some choices — have to be made because I don’t think we really want to consider opening more camp for Syrian refugees and then funding them and holding them … and arguing that is the solution to the problem,”said Swansinger
Then Vassoler presented on some of the Latin American countries that are accepting refugees. Brazil and Argentina are the two main countries letting the refugees into their countries.
She explained that Latin America has a long history of being welcoming toward refugees and, in the 19th century, refugees were accepted in Latin America as immigrants. She said that today, there is a policy in Brazil and Argentina to accept the refugees, but there are not many plans for how to settle these immigrants into society.
“There is a well established policy, but … because of economic conditions mainly, and particularly now that Brazil is going through a major economic recession, the Brazilian government does not have settlement programs,” said Vassoler.
However, according to Vassoler, refugee immigrants in Brazil do have the ability for their children to attend public school, and they are also entitled to healthcare.
Vassoler went into the problems these countries are experiencing with being able to take in refugees. She explained how, currently, there are 3,000 Syrian refugees in Brazil, mainly in Sao Paulo. She said that language, housing, employment, low-income and cultural clashes are some of the biggest challenges these two countries are facing. She said that most of the refugees want to leave.
“They don’t know how they can prosper in Brazil, so perhaps some of them are looking for relatives for who are the United States, in Canada or in Europe and try from Brazil to make the transition,” said Vassoler.
Both professors then finished up the discussion by answering some questions from the audience.
Nicole Berger, a senior political science and international studies double major, enjoyed the discussion and felt she learned many interesting information about the current refugee crisis.
“I think that the terminology difference was really interesting because then you don’t know who’s a refugee in Brazil or not or if they’re just immigrants,” said Berger.