Refugee crisis

María Paula

Martínez Guerrero

Liceo Hypatia
 REFUGEE CRISIS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

To talk about the refugee crisis, it is necessary to explain it like one of the biggest problem

in our world. First of all is necessarily have to talk about Africa and Syria because the

majority of the refugees come from these continents, and this aspect have a lot of reason to

be.

In Africa there is a complicated demographic situation which causes several drought

generating trouble with the agriculture and the livestock, as well, for the animals is almost

impossible to survive in this climatic conditions, and for obtain a good harvest is necessary

to have a lot of cares which includes too much water. For example, and in Africa the water

is so scarce. This is one of the facts that make it so hard to have economic activities and this

is so serious because they can’t earn money and a lot less produce food to survive.

According to the UNICEF Africa has one of the highest number of malnourished children,

besides this it is one of the most violent places in the world because there are too many

insurgent groups which are often financed by the local politicians. And here we found another

big problem of this place, the corruption. The Newspaper El mundo says that this continent

register a high number of corruption, what shows us that this African countries don’t have a

well-structured government what causes a growth in the crisis.

The people in Africa generally run away to neighbor countries like Ethiopia and Yemen, and

some European countries, what have caused that these countries have to be responsible of

this population, but of course the displaced people does not have the same rights of the

Europeans, and in this moment they are also a problem for the government.
Now lest us talk about Syria where we find a similar situation to Africa. There is a highest

problem of corruption, and besides this, the demographic situations is not the best. It causes

a lot of internal problems, what forces people to look for another opportunities in different

places.

But the real problem in Syria started in 2011 with pacific protest because of the situation of

the country: the high unemployment, the lack of freedom, oppression and the corruption. In

this protest, the government arrested 15 boys and killed one of them, the Syrians get indignant

and the real war started. The people obtained weapons and a new opposition group was born:

the Free Syrian Army.

The leader of Syria started looking for help in other countries like Iraq and Iran that sent their

solders to attack the civil population, what they didn’t know was that the Free Syrian Army

had help from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The fire began and people had to immigrate to Israel

and the problem started to be like the one in Europa but, here is more complex because in

Israel, even though that they were helping them, this is a racist country where is not allowed

people from other religions and beliefs due to the conviction they have that Israel is the

promised land. In this case, Israel preferred to help them in a violent way, they try to bomb

the leader, but in this purpose a lot of civils were hurt.

We can see that the refugee crisis has a lot of causes, were we can find not only the economic

problem but also civil conflicts that end up in violence, making it almost impossible for

people to stay in the country. And the situation get worst when we star to talk about the way

they try to scape, because some of them cross De Mediterranean Ocean and often they die

trying.
The most affected in this crisis are the children that represent the 31% of the population, and

they are living in a terrible conditions, of course for this moment a lot of foundations are

trying help them.

Big countries like USA have started to be involved in this conflicts attacking militarily Syrian

government initiating new campaigns and projects to solve this war. Also Russia have

develop military strategies to support Assad´s defenses. This is a problem that we can say is

affecting all the world and later could cause something worst.

SOCIAL CONTEXT

In this moment the Syria´s conflict is in the worst stage because of the politic crisis that is

being developed by different facts: first of all, the insurgent groups and their actions with the

civil population, second one, the government and the decisions that they are taking to control

the civil war, and the most serious, the differences that are increasing between the world

powers.

To explain this three aspects, we have to talk about the last events that happened in Syria.

The government of this country is being accused of using chemical weapons against the

population, and the most affected are women and children, of course this is a violation of

human rights and a lot of other countries are saying that this actions can be taken as inhuman.

This is a really big problem because, in this case, Germany government is supporting the

Syria´s ideas and United States responded to this violent attacks with more of the same

actions, they decide to bomb Syria´s chemical labs. After this, the most strong countries are
dividing becoming allies; France and England are with USA and Russia is with the Syria´s

government. It is to be expected that if this conflict continues, a really big war can start.

Besides to this, the situation of the population is in the worst moment ever. They don’t have

enough food, basic things of personal care and much less, security in their daily life. All this

has made that the only solution is fleeing. Clearly, the government doesn´t support the

population, and this is why they have to put their lives in danger looking to get out of there.

They build improvised boats to cross the Mediterranean Sea, arriving to different countries

like Turkey, Jordan, etc. On the trip, many of them die for different reasons: first, the climatic

conditions are very difficult, second, the improvised boats are not enough to support the

adversities of the sea, third, often they don’t have plenty food for the trip, and of course the

sea is full of dangers.

This countries, where the refugees are arriving, has an important role in this, because they

are looking for solution for the refugees crisis, is pretty clear that they can´t bring them

everything that they need, but they can´t abandon them.

In Syria, many people are dying, among them innocent children, good women, honest men,

grandparents, complete families, friends, etc. a population is suffering, and the government

is concentrated only in territory, leaving humanity aside and creating more biggest conflicts

with other countries.

In Africa, the situation does not change too much, here the biggest problem is the corruption.

The government is not administering correctly the resources, and the climatic conditions are

not the best to bring the population others alternatives. Even though that Africa is one of the

wealthiest country in the world, its population is one of the most poor.
 The people in Africa do not have progress opportunities, because of the scarce

economical resources that they possess. There are no good levels of educations, the people

doesn’t have the basic necessary thing, and even worse, they don’t have enough food and is

so common that a lot of children die of malnutrition. Norma Jimenez was studying this

problem, and she said that 3 out 5 children minors of 5 years, are in a state of malnutrition.

Lateral to this, diseases abound, and the medical possibilities are very few. This causes that

more and more people to die, and makes the situation every time worse.

All these terrible conditions have made that internal wars born, and with this the violence is

increasing making impossible to live there.

In this context, the people look for solutions, and one of them is run away to other countries.

Similar to Syrian population, they don’t have many possibilities to escape. They put their

lives at risk and many more people die.

The countries where they are arriving are in a complicated position because of the resources

that they have to invest in the refugees. While violence and deaths increase, the people who

achieve scape are in an uncertain situation, and for this moment is so difficult to imagine the

terrible situation that they are living.

It is clear that all perspectives present a complicated situation, not only for the refugees,

because all the countries are being affecting, and, if this problem is not solved soon, all the

world will be in a serious problems.

 Possible solutions

First of all, it is necessary to talk about a general solution for these troubled countries. Here

we have many points of view that contribute to the problem, and to propose a solution for the

refugee crisis we have to understand what must happen around them.

In Africa, the work of an anthropologist is not far from the field work where the population

is studied. First, to determine the causes of the most serious problems and after, trying to find

solutions for all this problems.

In Africa, there is a serious problem with the social fabric, and it is necessary to work in it.

Here, the anthropology has an important role for its social investigation, because only finding

the root of the problem that has weakened the social fabric, could start a hard work of

transformation in all the aspects, getting a radical solution.

In Syria one of the biggest problems is the government, because of the management that they

are giving to the conflict. Here we have external allies, and a first approach to the solution

should be a real confrontation, to have only one part to handle the situation. So it would be

less complicated to start making decisions. After that, they have to start a negotiation with

the internal part, and this can only be achieved with peace agreements with democratic

elections.

In these peace agreements, all the cultural part that has been lost due to the conflict must be

taken into account, and this is where the social work of an anthropologist comes in. Taking

into account that anthropologists are responsible for studying the different social and cultural
aspects of a population, and for find a total solution for the conflict, it is necessary to keep in

mind each of this aspects around the opposition and why it was generated from the beginning.

When an agreement is reached and the application process for the reconstruction of a country

begins, the help of the social sciences will be necessary. In this process should exist

a peace tribunal who will be responsible of knowing the truth for make it possible to achieve

a real solution; this is done by characterizing the civilian population, and in the same way the

armed population to make possible his return to normal life as civilians.

First, we have to know who was affected and in what level of severity, to be able to provide

psychosocial attention depending on the characteristics of the population. With all of this the

problem will be solved from the internal part and will have more structured bases to achieve

the objective.

In addition to this, the process needs a planning program that involves the following

questions: what were we like before the war? What happened to us during the war? and how

do we want to be after peace? and all of these are questions of a social investigation, that is

where an anthropologist is the most qualified.

It is clear that necessarily there must be a huge transformation, which is necessarily about

working on healing of the social fabric, and of course that is necessary to work with the

people, to find a real solution for this social problem. And here, the anthropology has a lot to

contribute.
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Greetings