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Victoria Catapang
Mr. Bradley
U.S. Government
26 October 2016
Bill Research Paper: International Humanitarian Issues
The world is in the worst refugee crisis since the Jews in World War II. Thousands of
Syrians are displaced, people that were forced out of their homes and their country due to horrid
civil war. The rest of the world is responding. Some countries are sheltering the refugees with
open arms, however, many of these nations have their own struggles to deal with. Although the
U.S. is already in debt, the U.S. should provide money and aid to countries that have sheltered
refugees and are in financial turmoil to provide for them because the U.S. has taken in very few
refugees in comparison, those less developed countries have spent much to shelter those refugees
and Syrian refugees are in serious need of relief and aid.
The U.S. has taken in substantially fewer refugees than other countries and should aim to help
end the crisis by aiding those countries who have taken in large amounts of refugees. Syrian
refugees are in desperate need for shelter and relief, yet the U.S., for the most part seems to be
standing idly by. In the 1980s, the U.S. admitted almost 1 million refugees and close to 600,000
in the first half of the 1990s, yet we are only admitting 110,000 refugees this year (Egendorf).
Instead of trying to uphold the American values of humanitarian causes, the United States seem
to be discounting its ideals in favor of safety, both financial safety and against alleged
terrorists. Lebanon is sheltering more Syrian refugees than all of Europe but only has a
population of 4.5 million (McKenzie). The United States is sheltering fewer refugees than the

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majority of Europe and our population is at 318.9 million. If developing countries such as
Lebanon have the ability to shelter these people, then the U.S. should at least be altruistic enough
to aid them in their process.
Developing countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, have struggled and sacrificed much to help
aid Syrian refugees in relocation and the U.S. should bear some of that burden. Developing
countries are still striving to hold their own in the world around them but yet many of these
countries populated around Syria have reached out to the Syrian people and provided what they
can give. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that there are more
than 4.1 million Syrian refugees and of those, more than 1 million are sheltered in Lebanon and
more than 2 million live in Turkey (Dragostinova). These countries have taken in more refugees
than other countries and are struggling to accommodate all these refugees, but they continue to
take in more since other countries are not doing so. Lebanon alone has sheltered 1.5 million
Syrian refugees, which accounts to one-third of its population (Ghostine). This means that if the
U.S. helped that many refugees find a home using this model, 106.3 million refugees, completely
surpassing the number of refugees in the first place, would be in a safe and secure environment.
Other countries are going into debt trying to pay for these refugees to have shelter, food,
schooling, healthcare and other essential needs. Jordans debt has almost doubled from $18.9
billion in 2011 to $35.2 billion in 2016 (Luck). The U.S. has had an increase in its debt as well
during this time, but unlike Jordan, it would have an easier time bouncing back as it is still quite
a bit wealthier than some of these struggling nations.
The Syrian people have endeavored through their civil war and fled their country but still
havent been able to live happy and fulfilling lives. While the hosting countries attempt to

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provide their refugees with basic living needs, it is difficult for some countries to do so if it is out
of money and out of resources. For instance, there are 400,000 Syrian school-age children in
Lebanon and only a fourth of these children attended school in 2014 (Rice 33). Lebanon is not
alone in this effort and the situation is similar in other regions that are accommodating Syrian
refugees. If the U.S. could provide additional aid to these countries, then more children would be
able to become educated and could be integrated into the society of their new home country.
Even if education is able to be provided to these refugees, many are still unable to attend school.
Syrian refugee students had a dropout rate of 70% in 2011-2012 in the nation of Lebanon
(El-Ghali). This is due to the fact that these students must help their family and work to provide
for them. The living spaces that are provided for Syrian refugees are lacking as well, due to the
overall factor of the cost being too great for the nation to devote it to implementing more shelter.
40% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon dont live in homes or camps, rather they live in unfinished
buildings, empty stores and parking lots (Gebara). While parking lots are some form of shelter,
they do not adequately provide for families and these families are basically living in poverty. The
utter truth comes down to the fact that the money to sustain the despairing expatriates is
nonexistent thus not improving living conditions for these people.
Some citizens of the U.S. may argue that the U.S. does not have enough funds in order to
administer aid to these people and that the U.S. government should focus on helping their own
citizens in poverty first before they look to the rest of the world. However, the U.S. could
increase the federal tax on income in order to maintain this deficit. In addition to this, while the
U.S. has 15.1% of its population below the poverty line, the vast majority of Syrians are living
with almost nothing, including their own families (The World Factbook). The people of the

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U.S. should be a priority for the U.S government, however, this doesnt mean that the
government should turn a blind eye to the needs of the citizens of the world. Other governments
have spent much more than the United States have and are still trying to end this refugee crisis.
For example, Jordans government has spent $168 million on basic health services for refugees
(Fakih). If Jordan is able to provide Syrian refugees with basic health services, the United States
should be able to at least give some sort of aid if it continues to have a negative outlook on
foreigners and not allow many refugees to enter the country.
The U.S. should provide developing nations with the money vitally needed to sustain refugees
from Syria because those countries have already sacrificed much in order to allow refugees to
live in their country, the U.S. has not contributed much aid with respect to other nations of the
world and that Syrian refugees are in dire need of the aid the people of the world can give. The
U.S. has been at the forefront of humanitarian causes since World War II despite its perpetual
internal struggles. The U.S. must assert itself once more as a leader in altruism and to look at the
larger, global picture. If the U.S. fails to do so, the U.S. ideals of described in our Declaration of
Independence and our Constitution is rendered useless and hypocritical. How does the United
States want to be remembered by posterity: as a terrified nation that has been ruled by fear of
others or as a defiant and confident country that aims for the benefit of the globe as a whole?

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Egendorf, Laura K. Human Rights: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 2003.
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Oct.

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