EDUC 499: Greece - Summer 2019’s Updates

Refugee Crisis

The concept of citizenship is an interesting one when we consider the multiple ways that it gets challenged every day. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to a nationality and thus no one is to remain stateless. Refugees in particular are forced to flee their home country due to persecution, war and/or violence. Watching these videos, it’s incredible to see the way ERCI team members talked about this crisis and the way they put the responsibility on us as human beings to help one another out. However, as resources are needed to adequately and best support refugees, responsibility also needs to be put on governments. Even though Greece is a small country, specifically compared to the United States, and it went through a big financial recession, Greece has opened its doors to many refugees. But as David Frum mentioned in his Atlantic article, the movement of people is “politically stressful” for countries. Refugee acceptance has become an incredibly polarized political topic, and as we have seen in both the United States and Greece, refugees often face a lack of resources (like education and healthcare) and face being discriminated against as they may be used as scapegoats when in times of economic and social unrest. I think when looking at the refugee crisis here in Greece and as well as the United States, the discourse needs to switch from a polarized, political issue to a human rights issue to make sure that the resources that are truly needed for the survival and safety of refugees are actually being considered.