Loading ...Refugees Welcome Index: 63% of Americans think the U.S. should do more to help refugees
Syrian refugees, stuck between the Jordanian and Syrian borders, cross into Jordan after a group of refugees had crossed into Jordanian territory, near the town of Ruwaished at the Hadalat area, east of the capital Amman, May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Muhammad HamedSalon
By Ben Norton
The world is faced with the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and, while racism and xenophobia are on the rise, a new global survey found that average people are much more supportive of refugees than media reports often make them out to be.
In particular, a new research project called the Refugees Welcome Index found that a majority of Americans agree that their government should do more to help refugees, even as the U.S. falls extremely far behind on its pledge to admit just 10,000 Syrian refugees.
The Refugees Welcome Index is a global survey of more than 27,000 people in 27 countries. It was commissioned by leading human rights organization Amnesty International, and was carried out by the renowned public opinion research consultancy GlobeScan.
It found that almost two-thirds, 63 percent, of Americans think the U.S. government should do more to help refugees. Nearly three-fourths, 73 percent, of Americans agreed that people should be able to take refuge in other countries to escape war and persecution.
The vast majority, 71 percent, of Americans would let refugees into the country.
More than one-fourth, 27 percent, of people in the U.S. say they would accept refugees into their neighborhood.
And even 15 percent of Americans are willing to welcome refugees in their own homes.
Only 22 percent of Americans, less than one-fourth of the country, said the U.S. should refuse to let refugees into the country.
The study shows that the anti-refugee sentiment that is widespread among right-wing politicians is in fact out of touch with the majority of the population.
“Americans feel compassion and concern for refugees, and they do not want to turn their backs on people fleeing war and horrific violence,” said Margaret Huang, Amnesty International USA’s interim executive director, in a statement.
More than half of U.S. governors have said Syrian refugees are not welcome in their states. Amnesty International USA has documented attempts to block or limit refugee resettlement in at least 16 states.
“This new data sends a clear message to officials in the U.S. to stop the fear-mongering and to do more to help vulnerable refugees,” Huang explained. “Those who want to block refugees from coming into the U.S. are completely out of step with the American people.”
Today there are approximately 60 million people who have been displaced by war in the world today, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR calls this “an all-time high as violence and persecution” are on the rise around the world.
The largest refugee group consists of Syrians. Almost 5 million Syrian refugees are registered with the UNHCR, and more than half of the country’s entire population has been displaced since war broke out in 2011.
Although the U.S. has fueled the catastrophic war in Syria, spending billions arming, training and supporting rebel groups, it has failed to take many refugees.
In September, the White House pledged to admit just 10,000 Syrian refugees.
In comparison, Germany, which has one-quarter of the U.S. population, took more than 1 million refugees in 2015 alone.
Canada, which has just one-tenth of the U.S. population, resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees between November and the end of February.
And the tiny Middle Eastern countries Lebanon and Jordan have together taken roughly 2 million Syrian refugees. (One in five people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee.)
Meanwhile, the U.S. has still thus far failed to live up to this measly 10,000 promise. As of May, seven months into its pledge, the Obama administration had resettled only 1,736 Syrian refugees.