Just a few weeks ago, Bangor native and former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen warned that, as millions flee Syria in search of safety, the U.S. isn’t “facing up to the situation” as one would expect from a global power.
“Frankly, it’s a little bit depressing to think that we’ve become desensitized to human suffering,” Cohen said Oct. 27 during a panel discussion at the University of Maine. “We don’t look at the human dimension, the dimensions of the catastrophe of people who have nothing, who are homeless.
“You can’t say it’s Europe’s problem, and if Europe can’t contend with it, we just let people die on a massive scale, saying, ‘It’s not our problem.’”
On Monday, Cohen’s message was sadly apparent, as more than two dozen governors — including Gov. Paul LePage — rushed to declare their opposition to allowing Syrian refugees to settle in their states. At the federal level, Republican politicians rushed to either declare their support for suspending refugee resettlement or for admitting Christian, but not Muslim, refugees.
That political onslaught amounted to elected officials collectively raising their hands to say, “Not our problem.” It was a missed opportunity for leaders to assert that this is a country governed by reason and compassion, which is still committed — as it’s able — to solving problems that make this world a place of suffering for too many.
Broader questions of foreign policy and military intervention aside, one way in which the U.S. is able to help is by welcoming refugees fleeing danger in their home countries.
The U.S. has taken in more refugees than any other country over the past 40 years. As a matter of policy, the U.S. traditionally aims to consider half of all refugees worldwide that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees refers for resettlement. But it’s not stepping up in the same way to welcome Syrian refugees. In September, President Obama committed to resettling 10,000 over the next year. Meanwhile, Germany has committed to accepting 800,000 while Canada will stick with plans to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees — 2.5 times the number its much larger southern neighbor is willing to accept.
To have so many political leaders effectively paint all refugees from one country as a potential danger makes the U.S. that much more unwelcoming. Meanwhile, the security concerns governors have cited to justify their unwelcoming stances are unwarranted. After Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. temporarily halted refugee resettlement to re-evaluate screening procedures and add new security measures. Since the U.S. resumed resettlement, it’s accepted 784,000 refugees, the Christian Science Monitor reported; three have been arrested on terrorism charges for plots that authorities foiled. Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, none arrived as refugees.
Nowadays, when the U.S. screens Syrian refugees for resettlement, it has a benefit that European nations don’t: being able to select from the millions who have already landed in Europe.
Beyond projecting an unwelcoming atmosphere, the governors who have said Syrian refugees aren’t welcome are limited in what they can do to prevent resettlement in their states. In Maine, for example, Catholic Charities is the only official refugee resettlement organization — an affiliate of one of nine nonprofits nationwide that resettle refugees on behalf of the U.S. government. After Catholic Charities welcomes refugees to Maine, the state automatically receives federal funds that cover the refugees’ health care and social services. Catholic Charities works with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Multicultural Affairs to apply for some optional grants to help the state’s refugee population.
Catholic Charities of Maine has committed to resettling 425 refugees in the state over the next year, said Bonnie Bagley, the organization’s associate director. But it’s unlikely that any will come from Syria due to the 18- to 24-month length of the screening process. Once in the U.S., they will be immediately authorized to work.
“The refugees come here because they’re fleeing persecution,” Bagley said. “They often come with little or nothing of their personal belongings. Many of them are well-educated.”
Maine is an aging state with minimal population growth, thousands of difficult-to-fill job vacancies and a need for thousands of new workers. The state doesn’t only have a moral obligation not to ignore a humanitarian crisis that affects the whole world. Maine can’t afford, for its own sake, to send a message that it’s not welcoming new residents.
