Preface: Turbulence -- Introduction: A tale of two refugee crises -- Who is a refugee? -- Moral obligations or why we should help people even if we don't like them -- Reasons for and against accepting refugees : a philosophical overview -- Refugee camps and urban settlements -- the problem we have created -- The price we demand for asylum -- Structural injustice -- Conclusion: What should we do? What should I do?
Summary:
"In 2015, Sina Habte's limp, pregnant body floated off the coast of Greece. Already past her due date when she boarded a flimsy boat to cross the Mediterranean Sea, Sina, wanted nothing more than to deliver her baby somewhere safe. A chemical engineer and citizen of the small African country of Eritrea, she'd spent 6 months fleeing almost certain life-long imprisonment, if not torture or death, for violating one of Eritrea's draconian rules. In her case, she wanted to live with her husband Dani instead of where the government assigned her. Eritrea is a country so repressive that its considered the North Korea of Africa. After escaping Eritrea, sneaking across borders and living in the shadows of several different countries, she had nowhere else to go. If she returned home, she would be imprisoned, tortured or killed, and if she stayed in a refugee camp in Africa, it was likely that she would be found by Eritrean agents and returned home to the same punishment. So Sina, like tens of thousands of others like her, paid the last of her money to smugglers and boarded a small, over-crowded boat bound for Europe in the hope of claiming asylum. When her boat capsized, as so many boats did, she became one of those refugees that people would see on the news. And for many, images of bodies like hers, drowned at sea or in overcrowded life-boats, struck a nerve. Shock often turned to horror when the images were of the bodies of young children who had drown at sea. People could no longer ignore the plight of asylum seekers and began to demand a response to this crisis. The summer of 2015 marked the beginning of the so-called European refugee crisis. While people had been entering Europe as asylum seekers for a long time, the rate intensified dramatically in 2015 when more than 1.3 million asylum seekers arrived asking for refugee status, tens of thousands more than previous years. The arrival of over a million refugees in a relatively short period of time was seen by many observers as a crisis. Such an unprecedented increase raised many questions for European citizens. Many people wanted to know: do we have obligations to help all these refugees? Is it enough to give them food and send them home or must we let them stay? Do we really have the capacity to help everyone?"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.