{"id":2730,"date":"2016-03-28T08:30:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T07:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/doing-business\/?p=2730"},"modified":"2016-04-24T17:28:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T16:28:52","slug":"refugees-may-be-the-key-to-peace-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/doing-business\/2016\/03\/28\/refugees-may-be-the-key-to-peace-in-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugees May Be the Key to Peace in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news in the local paper this morning was about the apparent rise of xenophobic right wing parties in a number of European democracies<\/strong> and the ethically and legally dubious agreement reached between the European Union and Turkey to intern refugees<\/strong> in that country rather than deal with them in Greece or in other EU member sates.<\/p>\n

\"imgres\"<\/a>This week, I am also reading a disturbing book by an English Journalist, John Bradley<\/a>, who makes a cogent argument that not only were radical Islamist parties the clear winners in the so called Arab Spring but that their medium term victory was a forgone conclusion. In his view a once prosperous and tolerant Tunisia is being polarized by radical Islam and that across the region such intolerant religious parties are being helped by a hapless West which does not really understand the issues\u00a0it is dealing with!<\/p>\n

As discussed in an\u00a0earlier post<\/a>, I have been\u00a0deeply concerned by Europe’s response<\/strong>, or lack thereof to the refugee crisis<\/strong> and sincerely believe that if handled properly, the crisis could be turned into an enormous opportunity for Europe to re-balance its lopsided demographics and jump start its economy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The horrific attacks in Brussels<\/strong> last week has increased the sense of fear in Europe and much has also\u00a0been written about large groups of immigrants in Cologne and other German cities threatening and molesting women. Such behavior only adds additional fuel to the xenophobic fire. In the United States, the two extremely dangerous individuals who appear to be the favorites for the Republican Presidential nomination actually agree on restricting\u00a0Muslim immigrants. Donald Trump calls for an outright ban and Senator Ted Cruz calls for allowing governors to ban refugees from Syria specifically. So much for Emma Lazarus’\u00a0inspired poem<\/a>\u00a0written on the Statue of Liberty asking for the “homeless and tempest tossed”.<\/p>\n

A Ray of Hope<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of my daughters sent me a link to the video below which I believe does offer a ray of hope. The video documents the approach of Portugal to resettlement<\/strong> and shows one family which managed to escape the horrors of\u00a0war and appears to be settling down in Portugal with the help of the European Asylum Support Office<\/strong>. The Office reports on the numbers and status of refugees who have managed to complete the paperwork and are awaiting judgement and resettlement. According to the Office’s 3rd quarter report from 2015 which is available here<\/a>, it has received a record of almost 460,000 requests in the quarter with about 148,000 coming from Syrians and was facing a backlog of more than 900,000 cases<\/strong> to process. News reports state, however, that only a few hundred of the hundreds of thousands have actually been resettled<\/strong> and the longer we leave these people in precarious situations<\/strong> or in substandard camps, the more difficult it will be to resettle them and help them become constructive citizens of a more pluralistic Europe<\/p>\n