The Global Refugee Crisis: Time for New Thinking
Last night, The University of Scranton and the Lackawanna Bar Association hosted its annual Honorable T. Linus Hoban Memorial Lecture. The 2016 lecture was delivered by David Miliband, President and Chief Executive of the International Rescue Committee and a former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. Miliband's talk centered on The Global Refugee Crisis: Time for New Thinking.
To many in the audience's surprise, Miliband explained that approximately sixty-five million people are currently displaced throughout the world as a result of violence, a combination of internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, and refugees. While much of the attention is on the refugees who have made it to Europe and the United States, the vast majority of refugees, and people displaced by violence more broadly, are located in low income countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Kenya, and other African and Middle Eastern states). Miliband also touched on a number of realities of today's refugee crisis, many of which can be found in this document by the International Rescue Committee.
The United States has the most comprehensive policy of any country in the world to screen and relocate refugees. Our screening and relocation process takes, on average, eighteen-to-twenty-four months to resettle a refugee. Similarly, our country has historically done a better job than most at providing opportunities for refugees and other persons displaced by violence, to integrate into society economically, politically, and socially. There's a path to citizenship available here that is not always available elsewhere. I envied Mr. Miliband's ability to respond politely, but with authority, to some members of the audience who were unpersuaded by historical and contemporary evidence.
Mr. Miliband also provided a number of areas in which the international community needs to reform itself in order to respond to what is likely the new normal of global refugees. Only one-percent of refugees returned to their home countries last year. That percentage is unlikely to increase dramatically in the near future. Refugee producing states such as Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan, are unlikely to stabilize in the coming years. The world therefore must be better prepared to support those people who are currently refugees, and in all likelihood will be for the next twenty or more years before they find a more permanent home. It also needs to fashion policies to respond to future refugees which will likely add to and not replace current refugees.
We must respond in way that is grounded in reality, a reality which reflects the conditions of today's refugee crisis, the needs of refugees rather than what makes us feel good, and empirically-based and empirically-informed policies. We cannot be deterred by the enormity of the task in front of us.
While my understanding of the global refugee crisis was consistent with Mr. Miliband's position, the audience's response to his work was a reminder that the message must be repeated more frequently.
To many in the audience's surprise, Miliband explained that approximately sixty-five million people are currently displaced throughout the world as a result of violence, a combination of internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, and refugees. While much of the attention is on the refugees who have made it to Europe and the United States, the vast majority of refugees, and people displaced by violence more broadly, are located in low income countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Kenya, and other African and Middle Eastern states). Miliband also touched on a number of realities of today's refugee crisis, many of which can be found in this document by the International Rescue Committee.
The United States has the most comprehensive policy of any country in the world to screen and relocate refugees. Our screening and relocation process takes, on average, eighteen-to-twenty-four months to resettle a refugee. Similarly, our country has historically done a better job than most at providing opportunities for refugees and other persons displaced by violence, to integrate into society economically, politically, and socially. There's a path to citizenship available here that is not always available elsewhere. I envied Mr. Miliband's ability to respond politely, but with authority, to some members of the audience who were unpersuaded by historical and contemporary evidence.
Mr. Miliband also provided a number of areas in which the international community needs to reform itself in order to respond to what is likely the new normal of global refugees. Only one-percent of refugees returned to their home countries last year. That percentage is unlikely to increase dramatically in the near future. Refugee producing states such as Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan, are unlikely to stabilize in the coming years. The world therefore must be better prepared to support those people who are currently refugees, and in all likelihood will be for the next twenty or more years before they find a more permanent home. It also needs to fashion policies to respond to future refugees which will likely add to and not replace current refugees.
We must respond in way that is grounded in reality, a reality which reflects the conditions of today's refugee crisis, the needs of refugees rather than what makes us feel good, and empirically-based and empirically-informed policies. We cannot be deterred by the enormity of the task in front of us.
While my understanding of the global refugee crisis was consistent with Mr. Miliband's position, the audience's response to his work was a reminder that the message must be repeated more frequently.
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