I think it's kind of dismissive of cultures where honor killings are the norm to say that it's "just an excuse". It's horridly wrong, but it isn't just because they would have committed murder anyway
That is the thing. It ISN'T the Norm. they are bringing up a practice that just isn't done, is outright said not to do it, as simply an excuse.
It would be like saying when the KKK kill a homosexual that it is because it is the Christian Norm to do so.
Except in this case, all the Christians are part of the KKK.
What the hell? People are suffering en masse, coming to you for help, and you turn them away because it'd somewhat inconvenience you?
140 thousand people in one year is not an inconvenience. We have already accepted hundreds of thousands, probably even millions, if refugees. At which point can one put the foot down and say "No, sorry, this boat is full now. You have to seek aid somewhere else".
If you were fleeing a war-torn country, traveled thousands of miles and risked to life and limb to do so, would you want someone to graciously offer to help you rebuild your life when you finally arrive?
"No, I'd want them to tell me to fuck off and go ruin someone else's country."
Treat others as you'd want to be treated is the moral imperative.
These are people travelling through peaceful country after peaceful country to get to the ones with what they believe will have the greatest economic benefits. Seeking out the country which will provide the means for greatest future may be a very understandable and human behaviour, but the right to asylum was not meant to be abused in such a way.
And of course this is ignoring the point that the majority of the immigrants that make up the "refugee" crisis are not fleeing war and do not have legal grounds to receive asylum as defined by the UN. The narrative constantly hammered out do not match the reality of the situation.
I hate to use kids as an example, but, are you really going to tell a family with children who haven't done anything yet in their lives to earn the kind of enmity that is regularly handed out to their people...are you really going to say there's no moral imperative to help? Because that'd be cold-blooded.
The majority of the immigrants who come to Europe are not children or families with children. They are young, adult men.
Honestly being a Canadian makes this whole conversation so dang alien to me.
Maybe Canada just has magical refugee and immigrant calming powers.
It's the *magical* power of "being one of the countries hardest to immigrate to in the world".
Well, as an American, I can say that we're turning them away because they hate the west and want to kill us.
Hm.
Well, let's say we isolate the entire population of Arkansas because they're meth dealers.
Or let's say that we disregard 17.6 million British voters (and possibly the state of Alabama as well, for a closer-to-home comparison) because they're racist, ill-informed and want the world to burn. Does that sound fair?
PPE: damn, beaten to it by OW.
I would like hundreds of thousands of hyperconservative Americans with their fucked up culture and fucked up religions just as little as I'd like more immigrants of the same type from the middle east.
Come to think of it, a progressive, leftist American should have no trouble understanding why Europeans are so worried about middle eastern influx. Just imagine the most conservative Christians you can showing up in numbers/year greater than the fourth biggest city in your home state.
Tell that to Cologne.
Poorly-integrated immigrants are poorly-integrated, who'd a thunk it
As far as anyone can tell, 99% of refugees are decent people.
Poor integration is the natural result of the sheer numbers of immigrants.
And if 99% of people from the middle east were truly decent people then the middle eastern cultures would not look as they do today. Crossing a border into a European country does not magically give them new opinions, mindsets, and moralities.
Cologne* speaking here: You're full of shit. Most of the perpetrators of the New Year's attacks were North African men who were in Germany illegally, not as refugees. Please note that Syria is not a North African country, and Syrians actually are refugees in the true meaning** of the word.
*Well, Bonn, but that's basically just a suburb.
**As opposed to the 'brown people who haven't drowned in the Mediterranean' definition one sees so often.
That becomes irrelevant when media, activists, and idealists start using the word "refugee" to mean any immigrant currently hearing to Europe to apply for asylum, as has become practice since the "refugee crisis" came into bring. I have much less problem with syrians seeking asylum than with all the people who don't have any grounds for asylum - eg the people who make out the majority of the the "refugees".
To be perfectly honest I don't have all that much problem with refugees. My problem, as an American, is that the people in our government who want to let refugees in don't even want to enforce a simple background check. Not so much as a "have you taken part in terrorist summer camp?" question on a fucking checklist. Yeah, there are people suffering out there, but could we AT LEAST take SOME precautions against the assholes who want to use that to blow people up?
That isn't accurate. The US requires people to pass inspections by several different government agencies before they become eligible for migration, if I remember my facts right.
Source: John Oliver, that week tonight show.
Preedit: so tired of new posts showing up, screw it, I'm just posting this now.