Should the US Accept Iraqi Refugees?

Umm, yeah.

The Iraqi refugee crisis, which my independent study paper is about (and I am kind of not paying attention to) right now has finally been getting a lot more attention in the media. Over 2 million Iraqis have fled the country, mostly from the Baghdad area. Another 2 million are "internally displaced," meaning they have fled there homes but are still within Iraq's borders.

Jordan and Syria are hosting nearly 1 million refugees each - EACH. Neither country really has the capacity to support this sudden surge in population, nor do they want to. They have the support of the UN High Commission on Refugees, but are not getting an amount of international support satisfactory enough to keep their countries from experiencing major supply shortages, inflation and potential civil conflicts.

The United States has been badgered by different countries and international organizations granting less than 1,000 refugees asylum in the last four years, even though it is primarily responsible for the crisis.

The US has plenty of reason not to be so open to so many new arrivals like it has been in the past. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, and several other crises, the US let in thousands of refugees. Following the fall of Saigon, the US let in well over 100,000 Vietnamese asylum seekers, nearly all of whom have been absorbed and are full American citizens.

The issues with Iraqis extend to the American fear of domestic terrorism. It would be a "nightmare" as one official put it, to have to screen tens of thousands of applicants. This fear is extended to the majority of refugees, who affiliate Muslim and are Arab.

But the two major Muslim communities are not the only groups experiencing displacement. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are thought to be Christians, plus tens of thousands of Mandeans - an ethno-religious minority whose very existence may be on the line.

Both of these communities have been particularly targeted by both Sunni and Shiite radicals - Mandeans in southern Iraq, Christians in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

Additionally, there are believed to be several thousand displaced Kurds who have not fled to Iraqi Kurdistan but attempted to go to Jordan or Syria.

While the Iraqi Civil War's main actors are Arab Sunnis and Arab Shiites, the Christians, Mandeans and Kurds all have largely stayed away from reprisals, militia organization and instigation. Their numbers are huge, they need help, and they would *perceivably* present less of a security risk to the United States.

Given these facts, it would be in the best interest of the United States to extend its hand to these particular groups, who do not have anti-American militias bloodying Baghdad, affiliated to their respective groups. It would also provide an outlet for the survival of Assyrian Christian and Iraqi Mandean cultures and societies in the wake of such a major threat to each one's existence.

The absorption of any segment of the refugees currently living in Syria or Jordan would be a vast relief to each state and better enable either one to improve the living conditions of each of those countries' refugee populations.