Syrian Refugee Resettlement

"A large-scale refugee resettlement is not a desirable option. It just further complicates things. Having said that, we are meeting with our officials and ... we are monitoring the situation very closely ... We are thinking forward in case, at some point, the UN does come to us and other countries to ask us to participate in resettlement. We're already making contingency plans for that."
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney

 Just a thought: why not re-absorbed within the Middle East? After all, the situation isn't quite what it was when the world's longest-clinging-to-refugee-status Palestinians were in search of haven, and their Arab brethren throughout the Middle East preferred they remain homeless until such time as they could manage a victorious return to their Palestinian homeland, vacated by the embattled State of Israel.

That issue remains a rankling reminder that the great Arab nation is fractured, suspicious and intolerant of one another.

The only Arab country that has given citizenship to its Palestinian demographic has been Jordan, and largely because, after all, those Palestinians are Jordanian in origin, as it were. While the Hashemite Kingdom itself is governed by another clan of Arabs altogether, comprised of a minority compared to a Palestinian majority, this is the single nation of the Middle East that has recognized its Palestinian population as citizens.

There is now a minimum of a million displaced Syrians outside the country, living as refugees from war in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. The United Nations would ideally like to relieve the drear conditions in which these refugees live, in tent camps densely crowded where food distribution and health concerns are distinct problems both for aid agencies and for the miserable Syrians who have been forced to flee both the Syrian regime's artillery bombardments and the rebel militias.

Those who have fled are mostly Sunni Arab Syrians. Among them as well are Syrian Christians. Christians throughout the Middle East have been increasingly oppressed, attacked and beaten, their churches desecrated and Christians sometimes murdered, necessitating that they leave their ancient homelands. For Christianity, after all, pre-dated Islam in the Middle East, which was its crucible.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but perhaps because of their desperate plight, Syrian Christians should be considered foremost as refugees more adaptable to Western culture, rather than Muslim Syrians whose Sunni sect is the most populous in the Middle East. In fact, the Syrian rebels and their Islamist allies are Sunni, fighting against the Alawite Shia regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Why aren't the Arab League countries discussing seriously among themselves the appropriateness of welcoming Syrian refugees into their midst? Most Arab League nations, to begin with, are majority Sunni, and the Syrian refugees should feel right at home among them, should they desire to resettle within the Middle East. Offered citizenship in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, for example.

Christian Syrians have been threatened by the Sunni rebels. Their plight is more obvious than that of other Syrians fleeing the din of war and the constant deadly bombardments of the opposing militaries. It is perhaps seen as indelicate to point out the differences in religious alliances, but they are important differences within the Arab-Muslim Middle East as Christians steadily shrink in numbers.

Syrian-Canadians, supported by the New Democratic Party, have made demands of the Government of Canada, that the government involve itself to aid Syrian refugees. The Immigration Minister responds that it is premature to act on any level for the time being other than provide humanitarian aid and funding to alleviate the plight of the Syrian refugees.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees focuses for the present time on humanitarian aid, in the hopes that a political solution to the revolution may eventually bring an end to the violent hostilities and permit people to return to their towns and villages, their farms and the city suburbs which they have been forced to flee for haven elsewhere for their families.

Canada, according to Minister Kenney, has discussed resettlement options. If they are required, in the final analysis. But in the interim the country plans to increase aid for Syrian refugees above what it currently provides. Faisal Alazem of the Syrian Canadian Council is frustrated by this response, criticizing the Government of Canada for its inadequate response, in his opinion.

Syrians who applied to emigrate from their country to Canada prior to the conflict are being fast-tracked, according to Minister Kenney. In the last half of 2012, the greater majority of applications for permanent residency were approved; those who sought asylum, declaring their status as refugees were 80% deemed bona fide by the Immigration and Refugee Board last year.

Minister Kenney urges caution as well, however: "There's a terrible bloody war going on and there's frankly blood on a lot of people's hands both on the part of the regime and many of the opposition militias. We would have to be very careful about security screening and admissibility for anyone seeking to come in through a program".