Argumentative Essay On Syrian Refugees

A series of pro-democracy protests that took place in 2011 in Syria has escalated into a full-blown civil war. Because of this, one of the bigger issues that has risen over the past few years is the amount of people that have fled Syria due to the war. Roughly, over four million Syrian refugees had to flee; most of them are women and children. This has not only developed into a problem for the refugees themselves but to many neighboring countries as well. Some of these include Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Greece. The U.N has taken note over the situation since many countries are struggling to accommodate the thousands of refugees that come in on a regular basis.
One of the countries that have been struggling in particular to keep up with the Syrian immigration is Turkey.
Geographically speaking, Turkey is conveniently located close to Syria and therefore it is the first stop for many refugees. The problem with this whole situation is that Syrian refugees are causing a great deal of expenses for the Turkish government because many of them come in wounded from the war. Ozodogan, Hatice K, Karateke, Faruk and Mehmet (2014) have suggested in their article that many of the Syrian refugees come into Turkey in need of surgery and intensive care.
Amongst them, the biggest factor contributing to their injuries is gunshot wounds. Furthermore, the mortality rate amongst the ones that need intensive care is a staggering 55%. This would not be such a problem if only a couple of refugees were treated, but the reason this is starting to alarm the Turkish government is because refugees are coming in by the thousands. “According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, 182,621 Syrian refugees were living in Turkey mid-February 2013. With the influx of huge numbers of Syrians into Turkey, anti-immigrant, anti-Arab discourses have surfaced among the Turkish public.” (Senay Ozden) Consequently, the Turkish public is not particularly happy about the Syrian refugee crisis because thousands of people are coming into their country and consuming their resources.
Samira Shackle suggests that the Syrian refugee crisis is not only happening in Turkey but also around the European Union. Many of these countries are closing down their border in order to avoid the immigration of refugees. It has been estimated that roughly around 2.6 million people have fled war torn Syria and even though most of them make it to Jordan and Turkey, a
minority reaches Europe. The UK has agreed to take around five hundred refugees, and even though the original idea was to take the most vulnerable refugees, many of the Syrians that make it into the UK are from a higher socio-economic standard. (2014) It is because they have greater means to reach the UK than the Syrians who reached Jordan or Turkey. Recently in 2015, the European community and the rest of the world started paying more attention to the Syrian refugee crisis after the washed out body of a small child was found on the beaches of Bodrum, a popular tourist location. This raised concern throughout Europe and governments around Europe began offering help. Other than the war itself, Syrians are leaving their country because of other reasons. Before the war, Syria already suffered from other problems that caused unrest amongst its citizens. Pinar Yazgan and Deniz Eroglu Utku suggest in their article that reasons like unemployment, suppression of minorities and income inequality are just a few of the vast amount of negative characteristics that the country holds. “If one wants economic drivers for migration, the average GDP per capita in Syria has been around a third of- or less- that is in Turkey, and about a tenth of the average in most European countries. This means even without the current violence, there were adequate reasons for many Syrians to leave.” (Eroglu Utku, Yazgan). It is clear that Syrians are not only leaving their country for the war but also to search greater socio-economic opportunities. This puts extra pressure on other countries because not only will they be taking in refugees from the war but also since many Syrians are searching for better lifestyles, that means that they will be competing for jobs with the citizens of those countries. Consequently, it is understandable why the citizens of such countries are not particularly content with the idea of Syrian refugees coming into their countries. This could bring greater repercussions in the future because these countries economies could be affected because of it.