Whenever I hear the word ”refugee” I think of when of we fled from Norway, 75 years ago during World War 2. I think of the welcoming countries like Usa and Sweden, who took us in without hesitation. Without thinking about the number of people and the cost. The government fled. Over 60 000 Norwegians fled. All the people fled from war.
The same thing is happening today, not since the 1940`s has there been so many refugees in the world, and now suddenly the Syrian people are not welcome here in our country, Norway, one of the worlds wealthiest countries.
Has the world really changed so drastically ?
I want to point this out. I think its a matter of course that we take in as many refugees that we possibly can. We are a small nation, but we have a lot of space, and few inhabitans. We are a country with huge wallets and enough resources to take in 10 times more refugees than we do. Many of the municipalities in Norway are struggling with relocationing of the population. We can of course take in people from all around the world, and now from Syria. Regardless of their origin, skintone, religion or weather they are poor or not.
In this case, Syria has up until the war been a relatively wealthy country, with a lot of resourceful and well educated people. So in a matter of fact, seen in a long term perspective, there is actually a big benefit of taking in Syrian refugees to Norway.
They bring knowledge and working moral. For instance Germany has understood this fact. They regard the Syrian refugees as resources for the development of Germany. One of the reasons is that the population of Germany is decreasing, and they need more employees to maintain the prosperity.
In media they have called the refugees of Syria ”The golden refugees” because of their level of education and motivation to work. The Germans have chosen to think of this crisis as a possibility instead of a burden. So should we.
Another reason for this to be a benefit for the country; is that resourceful refugees, with a muslim backround, will contribute by building bridges between people with different religions and give us a well functioning multi cultural society.
One example that supports this theory, is the refugees from Bosnia. Most of them came to Norway, during the Bosnian war, from 1992-95. They are very well integrated, and they have high education, little unemployement and very good Norwegian language skills. When the Bosnian refugees came, 272 of the 430 municipalities welcomed them. And today again we need to show our compassion for other people than ourselves. We are ONE world, one human kind, and we need to stick together.
As much as I want to welcome as many Syrians as possible, I understand the sceptisism that some people feel around taking in so many refugees into our country. There will be difficulties with taking care of thousands of people, and since we have granted the refugees many rights, it requires a lot of money and work.
There are politicians who are very afraid of foreign religions and especially people who are muslims.
Their arguments against Syrians are nothing but racism.
They also mean that we need to help the Syrians in need where they are; In refugee camps in the neighbour countries of Syria, like Libanon, Jordan and Irak. In these camps they only just survive. They cant build a home there, they cant send their kids to school. We have the chance to help them with that, we can build them a home, we can educate their children, we can give them an oppurtunity to make a new life.
Even though the neighbour countries are poor, at least they try to save them. They have taken in 95% of the refugees, and saved them from war. Here in the northern rich and spoiled countries, we are whining about 5% prosent of the obviously desperate and now homeless people of Syria.
We should be ashamed of ourselves. This should be a discussion about human value and compassion, it seems like it has become more important to save money than human lives.
During World War 2 it was us, now its the Syrians who need a safe haven.
I would like to join the wise words of Elie Wiesel :
”The opposite of love is not hate, its indifference”