The acceptance of thousands of Syrian refugees by Canada won鈥檛 make a substantial difference to the overall refugee crisis, but it will make a huge difference in the lives of those who come here. They will have the opportunity for a secure life and a productive future.
As 91原创s prepare to welcome the first of 25,000 refugees the federal government has agreed to accept, our neighbours to the south are putting up the shutters and bolting their doors, fearing a flood of refugees they see as a threat.
The contrast is stark. Sixty-five per cent of 91原创s support the Liberals鈥� promise to accept 25,000 refugees, according to a recent Nanos Research survey. In the U.S., just 28 per cent of Americans support the Obama administration鈥檚 plan to accept 10,000 refugees, according to a Bloomberg survey.
More than half of state governors in the U.S. have said they will refuse to accept Syrian refugees. States don鈥檛 have the authority to close their borders to refugees, but they can make placement of the refugees difficult by withholding services.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump is stirring up more xenophobia by advocating that the U.S. close its borders to Muslims.
In Canada, churches, communities, provincial and municipal governments, and businesses are pledging money and offering services to help the newcomers settle in. The B.C. government has allotted $1 million to the resettlement effort, for example, and across 91原创 Island, community groups are gearing up to sponsor and assist refugees.
Although Canada has many dark places in its Anglocentric past when it comes to the treatment of immigrants and refugees, it has evolved a tradition of providing a haven to people displaced from their homes by oppression and violence.
That doesn鈥檛 mean everything will automatically come up roses. The transition will not be easy for the immigrants who have spent several years in refugee camps. Adjustments will be required for both newcomers and established 91原创s.
But we鈥檝e done it before. We took in, to name some examples, a quarter of a million people displaced by the Second World War; 37,000 Hungarians fleeing the 1956 uprising; nearly 10,000 Czechs in 1968-69 after Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia; 7,000 Asians expelled from Uganda in the 1970s; 50,000 鈥渂oat people鈥� left homeless after the Vietnam War; Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese descent (6,300 as of March 31).
Those people have become, or are becoming, part of the national tapestry; they have not diminished our culture, but have enhanced it. There鈥檚 little reason to believe Syrian refugees will be any different.
Conflicts around the world reveal humans鈥� amazing ability to be cruel to each other, but they also offer us the opportunity to show how compassionate we can be.
