Nicolo at UBC (ASTU)

Hello readers!

Today, I will be examining the Syrian Refugee Crisis and in doing so, use our knowledge from various fields of academia in applying them to every day phenomena.

Imagine having to run away from all you have ever known. Fleeing from the very country you call “home”. Striding into the fog of war with only the clothes on your back to your name, glancing back at the horizon with the uncertainty of ever returning again.

Although this depiction of imagery may seem as if it came straight from a Hollywood Blockbuster Film, the sad truth is that thousands upon thousands of Syrian Refugees go through this nightmare every single day. As you find yourself reading this blog and more about the Syrian Refugee Crisis, you may respond in various different forms. First, you may be feeling unmoved or even helpless, on the other hand, begin the process of critical thinking, or take it a step further, in which I felt compelled as a Global Citizen participate in change one way or another.

In truth, the problem may be bigger than at first glance and evermore so daunting when statistics begin to pile together. In an excerpt from mercycorps.org, they describe the current civil war as, “the worst humanitarian disaster of our time. The number of innocent civilians suffering — more than 11 million people are displaced, thus far — and the increasingly dire impact on neighboring countries can seem too overwhelming to understand.”

What I love so much about about the Coordinated Arts Program, and in particular the Global Citizens stream offered at The University of British Columbia, is that all of our courses are so relevant and work hand in hand with each other. We can spur ideas and ask critical questions from various perspectives such as an English and cultural studies viewpoint, a sociological imagination, or even from what Dr. Erickson described the political science aspect as, “the car crash moment of sociology, literature and cultural studies, history, and economics”.

During our political science discussion earlier today, a student named Kendall chose to talk about the Syrian Refugee Crisis as her current events topic. The questions raised and discussion she formulated really got my gears turning. With our first week of university behind our belts, I quickly began to draw various perspectives and viewpoints I had learned from our ASTU 100, Sociology 100, and Psychology 102 classes! The line that really struck out to me from Kendal’s brilliant discussion is as follows: Well, whose responsibility is it to take in these refugees?

From learning the Bystander Effect (Latanè and Darley 1964) and how it was in correlation with the murder of Kitty Genovese from the previous week in Psychology 102, I was able to apply the same principles to the question posed. These questions quickly began to arise in my head: when calamities strike on an enormous scale and we feel as if our grip on the world is slowly drifting away, it is our first instinct to look at the United States of America for help? Whereas in reality, is it really their responsibility to be the first to dive-in headfirst?

The essence of the Bystander Effect is when there is a situation that involves a victim, and several people are there to witness the tragedy, responsibility is automatically distributed among civilians, resulting in the victim receiving no aid. In the same way, when the victim happens to be Syria, nations like Hungary or Qatar look to the United States to be the first to aid. We automatically assume that someone will fix the problem for us, when we know very well that that “someone” is ourselves!

In the attached video and article from CNN posted on September 10, 2015, they highlight the statistical figures in which countries are willing to accept new refugees. The figures that stood out the most to me were the statistics that included some of the rather wealthy Gulf countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia! These 4 countries combined have a whopping refugee tally of 0.

Personally, I truly believe that to a certain extent, countries who are more economically and politically stable should rise up behind the rallying cry of thousands of refugees every day. In truth, the refugees themselves want to end up in a country that will be able to support them as much as possible and to the best degree such as Germany or France. If hindsight were 20/20, it does make sense that if you are a country in which we gave the example of Romania in our political science discussion, and asked why they are not taking in more refugees, there are a lot of ways we can approach this scenario. For one and arguably one of the most obvious, refugees do not want to end up in Romania. Because of Romania’s current situation politically for instance, it would make sense why it does not appeal to many refugees in comparison to Germany.

I do not think it is appropriate at all for one country to be spearheading the Syrian Refugee Crisis or for countries who are more stable financially and politically to stand back and remain lukewarm! I take it my responsibility to advocate for more countries to rally as a whole and tackle this phenomenon in unity because we are stronger together. We cannot afford to have another “Kitty Genovese” tragedy in which civilians or nations cry out for help and no one comes to her aid when she needed it the most.

This is truly the beauty of academic learning in which we not only read about concepts, but are also able to apply them to ever day circumstances!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I hope to see you again next week!

Cheers,

Nico Jimenez