SOLLIMS Sampler Special Edition | Page 20

site of the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks – later determined to be utilized by ISIS operatives who were only pretending to be Syrian refugees in order to gain access to Europe - the passport at the scene of the attack nonetheless heightened xenophobia and anti-refugee sentiment across Europe . Similar lashback also happened in the U . S . as 31 state governors called for entirely banning Syrian refugee resettlement to the U . S . following the Paris attacks . The U . S . actually already has very strict policies – security vetting and refugee resettlement are not mutually exclusive . Refugees may enter through the U . S . Refugee Admissions Program ( USRAP ), which has a robust screening process that can take up to two years . Of those settled in the states since 9-11 through USRAP , only 3 refugees of a total of 784,000 have been arrested and convicted on charges related to terrorism . Yet the Obama administration announced that of the 100,000 refugees slotted for resettlement in the US in FY2017 , only 10,000 would be reserved for Syrian refugees .
According to a 2015 RAND study on “ Lessening the Risk of Refugee Radicalization ” based on nine historical cases of refugees fleeing violence in South Asia , Sub-Saharan Africa , and the Middle East , “ poverty and physical deprivation have less impact on the degree of radicalization than actions or omissions on the part of the receiving country and the international community ,” ( p . 3 ). This RAND study determined that six groups of factors may contribute to the risk for refugees to radicalize , including : host country ’ s administrative / legal policies , political and militant organizing , security , shelter , local economic conditions and resilience , and conditions for youth ; limiting refugee opportunities in multiple ways simultaneously increases the risk . However , “[ R ] adicalization – meaning the process of committing to political or religious ideologies that espouse change through violence – and related armed militancy are not inevitable . Rather , the risk can be mitigated if the main stakeholders adopt comprehensive policies that extend beyond immediate life-saving needs and address such issues as refugees ’ impact on the countries that host them ,” ( p . 1 ).
As such , the international community can play a part in welcoming refugees , and in that way actually reduce the risk for more radicalization toward extremism . A massive welcome of refugees has been achieved successfully by the international community in the past , such as in the late 1970s after the U . S . withdrew from Vietnam . Three million people ( one million of whom were boat people ) fled regimes in Laos , Cambodia , and Vietnam in the two decades after the war . A broad coalition of nations led by the U . S . resettled 450,000 Indochinese refugees initially , with one million eventually settling in the U . S . by the 1990s . In the case of the Indochinese refugee crisis , neighboring host nations also bore the brunt of the burden before media attention on the tragedies and political backlash prompted other governments to open their doors . But when the international community did commit to hosting refugees , resettling such a large number of refugees proved possible – as it could again , for the Syrian refugee crisis .
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