Serious question about ISIS and syrian refugees

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Ok I'll preface this by saying that I am pretty ignorant when it comes to politics. I've never voted and probably never will. For that reason I feel like I have no right to complain about anything.

I want to know what the argument is FOR bringing in these Syrian Refugees? I get all the reasons why its a bad idea. I always try and think about both sides of an argument but I can't even play devil's advocate on this one.

Can someone with knowledge on what's going on or even somebody that is FOR this please help me understand what our president is thinking?
 

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think of the US as a football team. a team needs players. the game the US plays is selling things to other countries. you keep score by selling more things to other countries than you buy.

immigration is kinda like drafting players from overseas, hopefully the players contribute to the team, some by inventing things, some by selling things. these players we draft have family and friends in their home countries.

imagine you get drafted by china, when you get to your new team (china) you live next to a guy that runs a plant that makes beer mugs, this plant sells the mugs 100 for 10 cents. lightbulb goes off in your head that these mugs will sell for $3 a piece back home, so you can mark these babies way up and still pay for shipping... you call old friend back home, set things up.. yada yada you're a Chinese millionaire.

i'm over simplifying things here but you get the idea, the other part of it is that now you are on Chinas team you'll tell all your old teammates back in the US that China ain't so bad...

when war breaks out that is our (the US) chance to draft some kick ass players, the problem is our government has the cleveland browns draft team and we end up with 100 different starting QB's over the last 10 years
 

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think of the US as a football team. a team needs players. the game the US plays is selling things to other countries. you keep score by selling more things to other countries than you buy.

immigration is kinda like drafting players from overseas, hopefully the players contribute to the team, some by inventing things, some by selling things. these players we draft have family and friends in their home countries.

imagine you get drafted by china, when you get to your new team (china) you live next to a guy that runs a plant that makes beer mugs, this plant sells the mugs 100 for 10 cents. lightbulb goes off in your head that these mugs will sell for $3 a piece back home, so you can mark these babies way up and still pay for shipping... you call old friend back home, set things up.. yada yada you're a Chinese millionaire.

i'm over simplifying things here but you get the idea, the other part of it is that now you are on Chinas team you'll tell all your old teammates back in the US that China ain't so bad...

when war breaks out that is our (the US) chance to draft some kick ass players, the problem is our government has the cleveland browns draft team and we end up with 100 different starting QB's over the last 10 years

good explanation I think.

I wanna bet on the other team, and I don't even care what the point spread is. lol
 

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we want to have this image as a vastly superior country and hold ourselves as the judging bar for the world morals. Its why we don't "torture" captured soldiers etc. This had lead to us giving financial aid to other countries when so much is fucked up a home. Our western superiority, it is our duty to take in refugee's because we are a better country than others. Basically its a way to prove our smugness
 

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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.
 
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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.

I like this post....
 

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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.

Too much common sense in this post!!
 

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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.

Housing Homeless Vets is not as lucrative a money making proposition for our political leader's Pimps as allowing in massive numbers of Middle Eastern male refugees is. They can cause Billions of dollars of needed security equipment to get sold after they do what they do.

"Follow The Money", as they say....as buddyboy illustrates so eloquently in his post...it largely comes down to Capatilism. In this instance, with a Muslim in our White House there could be a larger agenda to allowing ISIS to continue to exist (and even making sure they get a whole buncha totally bitchin' Toyota Trucks) and there are people who firmly believe there is a "Larger Agenda" and present a very eloquent case for such...thats really far-fetched though....considering all the players that'd have to be involved...with near certainty allowing these Middle Eastern Refugees in is motivated mainly by Capitalism...as buddyboy describes.

As kidman says also it does allow us to play that benevolent best country in the world card also but I personally believe thats a way way 2ndary benefit in this instance.

This Syrian (and other) Middle Eastern Refugee influx will help sell a BUNCH of stuff. I mean an absolute SH*TLOAD OF STUFF that otherwise would have been more difficult to justify the need for. Its the most tragic thing imaginable that the Toll for getting on that road that leads to selling this additional stuff is, unavoidably, innocent Lives. After our new Middle Eastern Immigrants do what it is that they will do so many more buildings will have to get equipped with expensive Airport-like Scanners, every entrance of every Stadium, Arena....any place large numbers of people gather will "need those"...incredibly large sums of money will get made....gained from selling stuff that we now "need" that we wouldn't have needed were there not for this terrible threat.

Glasses of Krug Clos d’Ambonnay will get raised in Toast by our elected's Masters, exotic Truffles will be enjoyed and Great Luxury will be known by them.

Same Old Song & Dance, once we died building Pyramids for them...maneuvering carzyheavy-ass stones up the side of an incline, we've died building their railroads we've ALWAYS been there for them when they needed people to die in their Wars so a few of us get blown to smithereens to get some money moved, and get The Man increased control over us. No difference to them.

Between then and now...slaves lost to build pyramids, soldiers dead in war or folks getting immolated in the name of commerce....to get the pockets of their best supporters lined nicely...to repay that support.

And is it really that difficult to understand why they consider it no different?

I mean, if you were them with the power to move Billions of (Tax)dollars into the coffers of your Master behind moving a whole BUNCH of Airport-like Body Scanning Security Devices and you'd get in line for a very handsome "commission" from the sale you do it.

Well.....you'd probably do it. Even if the "price" of getting those machines sold was really really bad, like.....really bad.

Its a LOT of Money. Its the freedom to have all that you desire during this lifetime. And the only real risk involved is the gamble that karma doesn't really exist & that there isn't any atonement in an "AfterLife" and that you are gonna be able to live with the Guilt.

And if you're already a Sociopath that last thing is no concern at all. So you might have just 2 Gambles involved and not three.

Most of the guys on this planet would take that "deal".

This exact thing has only been going on forever pretty much....its basically the Theme of what humanity has been, how they've treated one another....
 

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think of the US as a football team. a team needs players. the game the US plays is selling things to other countries. you keep score by selling more things to other countries than you buy.

immigration is kinda like drafting players from overseas, hopefully the players contribute to the team, some by inventing things, some by selling things. these players we draft have family and friends in their home countries.

imagine you get drafted by china, when you get to your new team (china) you live next to a guy that runs a plant that makes beer mugs, this plant sells the mugs 100 for 10 cents. lightbulb goes off in your head that these mugs will sell for $3 a piece back home, so you can mark these babies way up and still pay for shipping... you call old friend back home, set things up.. yada yada you're a Chinese millionaire.

i'm over simplifying things here but you get the idea, the other part of it is that now you are on Chinas team you'll tell all your old teammates back in the US that China ain't so bad...

when war breaks out that is our (the US) chance to draft some kick ass players, the problem is our government has the cleveland browns draft team and we end up with 100 different starting QB's over the last 10 years

Wtf?!?
 

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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.

^^This^^
 

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Because we're America and this is what we believe in. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

It's why we're better than the Terrorists, and why we'll ultimately win, as long as we don't become them, like so many want us to be.

What Americans thought of Jewish refugees on the eve of World War II

By Ishaan Tharoor November 17 at 6:00 AM

CT9-1b8WoAAfYWt.jpg


The results of the poll illustrated above by the useful Twitter account @HistOpinion were published in the pages of Fortune magazine in July 1938. Fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed at the time believed that the United States should raise its immigration quotas or encourage political refugees fleeing fascist states in Europe — the vast majority of whom were Jewish — to voyage across the Atlantic. Two-thirds of the respondents agreed with the proposition that "we should try to keep them out."

To be sure, the United States was emerging from the Great Depression, hardly a climate in which ordinary folks would welcome immigrants and economic competition. The events of Kristallnacht — a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in areas controlled by the Nazis — had yet to take place. And the poll's use of the term "political refugees" could have conjured in the minds of the American public images of communists, anarchists and other perceived ideological threats.
But look at the next chart, also tweeted by @HistOpinion. Two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup’s American Institute of Public Opinion in January 1939 — well after the events of Kristallnacht — said they would not take in 10,000 German Jewish refugee children.

[A couple of caveats: Polling in this period, including Gallup surveys, was not as scientifically rigorous as it later became. Also, respondents may not necessarily have had a particular bias against Jewish refugees. A separate portion of Gallup respondents were asked a nearly identical question which did not describe refugees as Jewish. Support for accepting refugees was slightly lower than when they were described as mostly Jewish.]

As WorldViews detailed earlier this year, most Western countries regarded the plight of Jewish refugees with skepticism or unveiled bigotry (and sympathy followed only wider knowledge of the monstrous slaughters of the Holocaust):
No matter the alarming rhetoric of [Adolf] Hitler's fascist state — and the growing acts of violence against Jews and others — popular sentiment in Western Europe and the United States was largely indifferent to the plight of German Jews.

"Of all the groups in the 20th century," write the authors of the 1999 book "Refugees in an Age of Genocide," "refugees from Nazism are now widely and popularly perceived as 'genuine,' but at the time German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian Jews were treated with ambivalence and outright hostility as well as sympathy."​
It's worth remembering this mood when thinking about the current moment, in which the United States is once more in the throes of a debate over letting in refugees. Ever since Friday's terror attacks in Paris, the Republicans, led by their presidential candidates, have sounded the alarm over the threat of jihadist infiltration from Syria — even though it now appears that every single identified assailant in the Paris siege was a European national.

[Europe’s fear of Muslim refugees echoes rhetoric of 1930s anti-Semitism]

The Republicans have signaled their intent to stop Syrian refugee arrivals, or at least accept only non-Muslim Syrians.
GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie of New Jersey was one of the many governors who said Monday that they would oppose settling Syrian refugees in their states; Christie insisted that he would not permit even a "3-year-old orphan's" entry.
Today's 3-year-old Syrian orphan, it seems, is 1939's German Jewish child.

Of course, there are huge historical and contextual differences between then and now. But, as Post columnist Dana Milbank notes, it is hard to ignore the echoes of the past when faced with the "xenophobic bidding war" of the present:
"This growing cry to turn away people fleeing for their lives brings to mind the SS St. Louis, the ship of Jewish refugees turned away from Florida in 1939," Milbank writes. "It’s perhaps the ugliest moment in a primary fight that has been sullied by bigotry from the start. It’s no exaggeration to call this un-American."

Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York
 

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Wealthiest middle eastern countries don't want them, but will provide financial support if the rest of the world takes them. Get the fuk out of here. We have too many true Americans that have sacrificed themselves for our country that have needs that must be met before we further swell the welfare system with people that would like us dead. Not our problem, fuk 'em.
 

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Because we're America and this is what we believe in. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

It's why we're better than the Terrorists, and why we'll ultimately win, as long as we don't become them, like so many want us to be.

What Americans thought of Jewish refugees on the eve of World War II

By Ishaan Tharoor November 17 at 6:00 AM

CT9-1b8WoAAfYWt.jpg


The results of the poll illustrated above by the useful Twitter account @HistOpinion were published in the pages of Fortune magazine in July 1938. Fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed at the time believed that the United States should raise its immigration quotas or encourage political refugees fleeing fascist states in Europe — the vast majority of whom were Jewish — to voyage across the Atlantic. Two-thirds of the respondents agreed with the proposition that "we should try to keep them out."

To be sure, the United States was emerging from the Great Depression, hardly a climate in which ordinary folks would welcome immigrants and economic competition. The events of Kristallnacht — a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in areas controlled by the Nazis — had yet to take place. And the poll's use of the term "political refugees" could have conjured in the minds of the American public images of communists, anarchists and other perceived ideological threats.
But look at the next chart, also tweeted by @HistOpinion. Two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup’s American Institute of Public Opinion in January 1939 — well after the events of Kristallnacht — said they would not take in 10,000 German Jewish refugee children.

[A couple of caveats: Polling in this period, including Gallup surveys, was not as scientifically rigorous as it later became. Also, respondents may not necessarily have had a particular bias against Jewish refugees. A separate portion of Gallup respondents were asked a nearly identical question which did not describe refugees as Jewish. Support for accepting refugees was slightly lower than when they were described as mostly Jewish.]

As WorldViews detailed earlier this year, most Western countries regarded the plight of Jewish refugees with skepticism or unveiled bigotry (and sympathy followed only wider knowledge of the monstrous slaughters of the Holocaust):
No matter the alarming rhetoric of [Adolf] Hitler's fascist state — and the growing acts of violence against Jews and others — popular sentiment in Western Europe and the United States was largely indifferent to the plight of German Jews.

"Of all the groups in the 20th century," write the authors of the 1999 book "Refugees in an Age of Genocide," "refugees from Nazism are now widely and popularly perceived as 'genuine,' but at the time German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian Jews were treated with ambivalence and outright hostility as well as sympathy."​
It's worth remembering this mood when thinking about the current moment, in which the United States is once more in the throes of a debate over letting in refugees. Ever since Friday's terror attacks in Paris, the Republicans, led by their presidential candidates, have sounded the alarm over the threat of jihadist infiltration from Syria — even though it now appears that every single identified assailant in the Paris siege was a European national.

[Europe’s fear of Muslim refugees echoes rhetoric of 1930s anti-Semitism]

The Republicans have signaled their intent to stop Syrian refugee arrivals, or at least accept only non-Muslim Syrians.
GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie of New Jersey was one of the many governors who said Monday that they would oppose settling Syrian refugees in their states; Christie insisted that he would not permit even a "3-year-old orphan's" entry.
Today's 3-year-old Syrian orphan, it seems, is 1939's German Jewish child.

Of course, there are huge historical and contextual differences between then and now. But, as Post columnist Dana Milbank notes, it is hard to ignore the echoes of the past when faced with the "xenophobic bidding war" of the present:
"This growing cry to turn away people fleeing for their lives brings to mind the SS St. Louis, the ship of Jewish refugees turned away from Florida in 1939," Milbank writes. "It’s perhaps the ugliest moment in a primary fight that has been sullied by bigotry from the start. It’s no exaggeration to call this un-American."

Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York



Lol......apples and oranges.
 

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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.


+1

nailed it
 

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Wealthiest middle eastern countries don't want them, but will provide financial support if the rest of the world takes them. Get the fuk out of here. We have too many true Americans that have sacrificed themselves for our country that have needs that must be met before we further swell the welfare system with people that would like us dead. Not our problem, fuk 'em.

How not getting the needs of those who have served this country met (and even exceeded) is not a thing that this country can, apparently, accomplish is completely mind-boggling.

I can't even imagine how our Government gets away with this one. I'd expected in light of the V.A. revelations there'd be massive outcry but....there doesn't seem to be.


Selflessly....literally risking (and often sacrificing) everything a person has to give yet our government gives instead to these guys:

"American taxpayers doled out $5.9 billion in foreign military financing in 2014, according to the government's Foreign Assistance report -- that's roughly the GDP of Somalia. But where did the money go?

To the usual suspects, mostly -- Israel ($3.1B) and Egypt ($1.3B) received roughly 75% of all foreign military aid money handed out by the U.S. last year.


The top five recipients of foreign military financing in 2014, according to the report:

1. Israel: $3.1 billion
2. Egypt: $1.3 billion
3. Iraq: $300 million
3. Jordan: $300 million
5. Pakistan: $280 million


What also stands out from the report is the regional distribution -- the Middle East (64%) and Africa (23%) account for 86% of all U.S. foreign military financing last year.

Must be The Obeezy....




 

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seriously, this is all they've got? How can we help these folks from syria when we have homeless vets that fought for our country on the streets begging for food. Should they not ALL get helped before we do one thing for people not from our country? Forget the fact that they could be terrorists.

I am a vet so I can kind of speak on this topic a bit. Please don't feel sorry for all homeless vets. Some served four years, some six, some eight or whatever. Being a vet doesn't absolve you from getting a job and supporting yourself. Yes, some have serious medical issues and I understand taking care of those people. Some, are just lazy and they will play the "poor me" card because they are a vet. I see it even today.

These guys posting yard signs that they don't like loud noises? Well I don't either. I've heard a 2,000 pound car bomb go off too. It doesn't mean I have the right to prevent others from having good legal fun either.
 

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Oh wait its even more embarrassing, shameful than I thought...that was just "Military Financial Aid".

U.S. spent $35 billion on Foreign Economic Aid last year

The $5.9 billion for military funding (in that post above) represents 17% of the roughly $35 billion the U.S. spent on foreign aid in 2014, according to the report.

This map from howmuch.net shows the relative size of countries based on how much total economic aid they received from the U.S. last year:

151111110652-us-foreign-aid-2014-exlarge-169.jpg




Again, the Middle East dominates the top five, thanks mostly to Israel. Here's the total amount of aid the top countries received:


1. Israel: $3.1 billion
2. Egypt: $1.5 billion
3. Afghanistan: $1.1 billion
4. Jordan: $1 billion
5. Pakistan: $933 million






963482463001_4608872986001_video-still-for-video-4608788062001.jpg




The Department of Veterans Affairs doled out more than $142 million in bonuses to executives and employees for performance in 2014 even as scandals over veterans' health care and other issues racked the agency.


Among the recipients were claims processors in a Philadelphia benefits office that investigators dubbed the worst in the country last year.

They received $300 to $900 each.

Managers in Tomah, Wis., got $1,000 to $4,000, even though they oversaw the over-prescription of opiates to veterans – one of whom died.


The VA also rewarded executives who managed construction of a facility in Denver, a disastrous project years overdue and more than $1 billion over budget. They took home $4,000 to $8,000 each.


In St. Cloud, Minn., where an internal investigation report last year outlined mismanagement that led to mass resignations of health care providers, the chief of staff cited by investigators received a performance bonus of almost $4,000.
 

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Guesser is a dumb ass..he has tried to make this 'Jewish Refugee in the 30s' argument in the political forum which was rightfully met with laughter.

The Jews were not trying to dominate the world and make everybody Jewish to find their salvation. They were a peaceful people looking for a way out of slaughter by the hands of Hitler (who just so happened to be have Muslims fighting alongside them to help exterminate the Jews).

Guesser compares Islam to Judaism. Laughable.

Apples to Oranges is somewhat accurate, more like apples to pumpkins. Not even close.

Guesser gets Knockout again.
 

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Guesser is a dumb ass..he has tried to make this 'Jewish Refugee in the 30s' argument in the political forum which was rightfully met with laughter.

The Jews were not trying to dominate the world and make everybody Jewish to find their salvation. They were a peaceful people looking for a way out of slaughter by the hands of Hitler (who just so happened to be have Muslims fighting alongside them to help exterminate the Jews).

Guesser compares Islam to Judaism. Laughable.

Apples to Oranges is somewhat accurate, more like apples to pumpkins. Not even close.

Guesser gets Knockout again.

Stay Down Gassy. You're pathetic replies play well down in Poli among the sick Cult down there, but the closer you get to sane society, the worse you look. The Syrian Refugees trying to escape killers are the exact same as the German Jews that were trying to escape killers.

[h=1]Europe’s fear of Muslim refugees echoes rhetoric of 1930s anti-Semitism[/h] Resize Text
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Comments 143





By Ishaan Tharoor September 2
imrs.php

A migrant shouts next to Macedonian policemen as she waits to cross the borders from northern Greece to southern Macedonia, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
A humanitarian crisis of historic proportions has been growing in Europe, as hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia have crossed the continent's borders this year alone.
The scale of the influx is now well-documented. According to the European Union's border agency, some 340,000 migrants crossed its borders in first seven months of 2015; in July, the figure was on its own an astonishing 107,500 people. The majority of those making the hazardous crossing across the eastern Mediterranean are Syrian refugees, displaced by a horrifying, grinding civil war that has forced roughly half of the country's population out of their homes.
According to U.N. figures, the current global levels of displacement have not been matched since World War II. In 2014, the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and people forced to flee within their country surged to nearly 60 million people.
[Britain takes in so few refugees they could fit on a subway train.]
It's hard to grasp the scope of this in real terms -- a nation of the displaced -- but it's been hideously dramatized in recent news. Desperate refugees and migrants, at the mercy of smugglers and human traffickers, have been confronted by walls and soldiers, have drowned in the Mediterranean, and suffocated in the back of trucks.
Over the past year, many in Europe have bristled at the influx -- from far-right political movements and fear-mongering tabloids to established politicians and leaders. The resentment has to do, in part, with the burden of coping with the refugees. But it's also activated a good amount of latent xenophobia--leading to anti-Islam protests, attacks on asylum centers and a good deal of bigoted bluster.
Some governments in Eastern Europe have even specifically indicated they don't want to accommodate non-Christian refugees, out of supposed fear over the ability of Muslims to integrate into Western society.
"Refugees are fleeing fear," urged a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency last week. "Refugees are not to be feared."
It's important to recognize that this is hardly the first time the West has warily eyed masses of refugees. And while some characterize Muslim arrivals as a supposedly unique threat, the xenophobia of the present carries direct echoes of a very different moment: The years before World War II, when tens of thousands of German Jews were compelled to flee Nazi Germany.
Consider this 1938 article in the Daily Mail, a British tabloid still known for its bouts of right-wing populism. Its headline warned of "German Jews Pouring Into This Country." And it began as follows:
"The way stateless Jews and Germans are pouring in from every port of this country is becoming an outrage. I intend to enforce the law to the fullest."
In these words, Mr Herbert Metcalde, the Old Street Magistrate yesterday referred to the number of aliens entering this country through the 'back door' -- a problem to which The Daily Mail has repeatedly pointed.
The number of aliens entering this country can be seen by the number of prosecutions in recent months. It is very difficult for the alien to escape the increasing vigilance of the police and port authorities.
Even if aliens manage to break through the defences, it is not long before they are caught and deported.
No matter the alarming rhetoric of Hitler's fascist state -- and the growing acts of violence against Jews and others -- popular sentiment in Western Europe and the United States was largely indifferent to the plight of German Jews.
"Of all the groups in the 20th century," write the authors of the 1999 book, "Refugees in the Age of Genocide," "refugees from Nazism are now widely and popularly perceived as 'genuine', but at the time German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian Jews were treated with ambivalence and outright hostility as well as sympathy."
Part of that hostility was fueled, as some of the European grievances are now, by stereotypes of the refugees as harbingers of a dangerous ideology, in this instance communism and anarchist violence.
There were also economic concerns. The world was coming off the Great Depression. In France alone, there were a million people unemployed. Resentment against French and foreign Jews (large numbers from Germany and Romania had arrived by the early 1930s) led to "a new wave of antisemitism," detailed by a report put out by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The Chamber of Commerce of the city of Metz, for example, grumbled in 1933 that "highly undesirable" Jews "have become a veritable plague for honest French merchants." By 1935, the then French government enacted a series of quotas on certain professions -- effectively blocking Jews out. This was a precursor for the more pernicious and deadly forms of antisemitism to come.
In Britain, as a 2002 article in the Guardian recounts, perhaps as many as half a million German Jewish asylum seekers were turned away by authorities ahead of the outbreak of World War II. Many who were admitted in were given asylum less out of altruism than a need to fill low-paying domestic work "spurned by the native British." The situation was no better elsewhere:
Canada accommodated only 5,000 European Jews between 1933 and 1945, Australia 10,000, South Africa some 6,000. And the US's unyielding quota system meant that, between 1933 and 1937, only 33,000 German Jews were admitted (and only 124,000 between 1938 and 1941).
Meanwhile, those trapped within Nazi-controlled Europe faced the horrors of the Holocaust. Millions were systematically killed. Yet it was only in 1944, when the extent of the genocide had become better known, that the United States made a real effort to rescue European Jews. Even during World War II, let alone before it started, antisemitism was rife in American political and public life.
Unwanted foreigners have always caused consternation among a section of any society. Thankfully, there's an equally vociferous chorus in Europe currently championing the plight of Syrian refugees, and urging others to help make a new home for those displaced by conflict and other hardships.
Everyone deserves the chance to live a better life, activists argue.
The Australian journalist Tom Gara, now an editor at Buzzfeed News, tweeted an account on Tuesday of his Hungarian Jewish grandfather's escape from his war-torn homeland in May 1940. After an arduous five-month journey, he arrived at the faraway port of Adelaide. One of his places of sanctuary along the way: Aleppo, Syria.
 

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Can we take all the black lives matter protesters and throw them out of a plane over Syria?
 

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