University Of San Diego Forum Examines Global Refugee Crisis

How should the world respond to mass migrations due to war, a form takes place at USD. How the states dead tree emergency affects San Diego. This is KPBS Midday Edition . I am Maureen Cavanaugh, it is Wednesday, November 4. Defense -- domestic violence suspect opened fire which brought is what team to the neighborhood. And, super cautionary lockdown in preschools. KPBS news, can you give us the latest on what is happen. The flights have still been delayed who are writing a book, but you can still -- Lindbergh. He is hold up but he is carrying a rifle, it appears they are trying to get ready to make arrangements to let kids leave the schools, for parents to pick them up. The preschools or Washington elementary, city tree Christian, and museums go. Has anyone been hurt? No one has been hurt and there are no hostages this point. Overman that it has been involved with the domestic violence call which brought officers to the apartment is safe with them. And so at this point It is a standpoint. -- It is a standoff. The man is in his apartment with some sort of rifle or shotgun. Correct. The officers have fired tear gas canisters into the apartment, that is fairly typical, they are trying to smoke them out. There are hostage negotiators they are to get him to get out so that it will end peacefully. That was Laura Wingard, we will keep you up-to-date with them for the latest news on KPBS. Our top story throughout the world billions of displaced people are making long and dangerous journeys searching for safety and is. Most recently, we've seen hundreds of thousand trying to resettle in Europe after leaving Syria. Last year we saw tens of thousands of getting people travel from Central America to the US border searching for refuge. What should the worlds reaction be to the mass movement of people fleeing wars and violence. This evening, that question will be part of a public forum at the Brock Institute of peace and justice on the global refugee crisis. Joining me are two members of tonight's panel. Keith Watenpaugh , his new book is rain from stones, the Middle East and the making of modern humanitarianism. Keith welcome to the program. Rawan Arar, welcome. , The mass deportation of Syria, since the Civil War has started, has been millions of people searching for safe haven. Where have most of the refugees gone. Most of them have been in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and those controlled by the Kurdish regional government. The numbers are absolutely huge. In 2014, the millionth refugee cross the border into Lebanon, there a similar numbers in Turkey and Jordan at this moment. Most of the population in Syria is living outside its borders Rawan Arar, and her stand that you have visited, Jordan has played an indispensable role. Of the 4 million refugees Jordan hosts about 630,000. Third to -- their population has increased. Most of the Syrian refugees in Jordan with outside of cams, but there are three Syrian refugee camps in Jordan each camp is distinctly different from the others. Give us a sense of what it is like in those cams. Definitely. The first can't open up -- the first camp to open up, posted over 200,000 people. It is more likely, -- lively, it is a street of shops, and it allows an economy to build inside the camp. This economy is very important for the people who live there, who use that to supplement the aid that they receive. In fact, it is so important that scholars and human rates -- writes, suggest that they should be implemented in future camps. So all is not grim within these cams. Not necessarily. But their class distinctions within the camps and a recent study has distinguished that they are still very basic needs not being met. Do think the other Islamic nations have stepped up adequately to basis humanitarian challenge Places like Lebanon, in Turkey, and secular Republic's, in many ways the surrounding states have done a great deed, when I was in Turkey the summer before last, working with university students there, I found that they were dealt with in a humane fashion that is consistent with the national standards. But this is a very basic type of support. I have been to other camps, they feel like waiting rooms to help. There was not a lot of hope, there's a lot of boredom, there is not educational programs, health programs, these are places, with great expectations, but a great does dysfunction. That is what I mean. In sense of neighboring countries offering a little bit more than simply a pot. In Turkey, you do see programs to help younger Turkish refugees to go to schools and universities, over half of the Syrians living in Turkey are living in the city's, they are often fighting works, sometimes they are fighting -- feeding terrible exploitation, it is not a situation in the Middle East if these governments change their attitudes toward refugees, it could be disastrous. But, refugees have a destabilizing effect, this is the case in Lebanon where one in three people in the territory of Lebanon are in fact Syrian refugees. What would you say is the determining factor as to whether or not someone who is the displaced person from Syria decides to stay in the Middle East, or to try to make this arduous dangerous journey, to Europe. What would make this decision as far as you know. For one of these refugees families. Other have not done interviews with refugees I speculate. Our conceptualization of the basic rights which include food, shelter, water is not enough. That people need a pathway to citizenship, they need the kind of security, and I think that that is one of the big challenges in Europe. Because these countries do except less refugees, Germany now has taken an unprecedented million refugees, country figure to select people that they resettle can offer them more support and a pathway to citizenship. Countries have to shoulder the burden can offer them what they can offer. And that is not enough. My students know in my advanced to the right class, -- in my human rights class we wanted to know what the journey was like. He was telling us that he is led central Syrian town very early in the war to Egypt. He was expelled to Egypt -- from Egypt when the military dictatorship was resumed. And he fled is simple. He was becoming frustrated with opportunities there, and his family identified him as a yet man as the most able to make the arduous journey through your ticket to Germany to establish up with their for his family. He narrated an amazing journey, encountering legal ways of moving but also the legal ways of crossing borders. Pain mafia fees, for transport. In Germany though, he had a good sense of safety and security, that the Germans were also treating him with a great deal of respect and dignity. Something that he did not sense as much, and my sense after talking with him, this was something that he had that experience until that moment arriving in Western Europe. So they complained bitterly about the bureaucracy, that he appreciated the treatment he received from the German people There is confusion about what to call these people. When the world became aware of the crisis, of with people moving from Syria and from the camps into Europe, it was largely call the refugee crisis. Some news organizations like MPR are calling them migrants. Rawan Arar how do you characterize this group of people I think it's dangerous to ignore the fact that these people are leaving because they are persecuted. But then you want to be precise in the way that you describe people. This controversy, comes through the fact that we make this a clear distinction between economic migrants, and refugees and asylum-seekers. It is really for me a question of timing. If you are going to start to death, any need to seek a better opportunity somewhere, does that make you an economic migrants? You are claiming some type of persecution because you are a member of an ethnic group or because of their religion. I think that I would like to call these people asylum-seekers, and let the European courts give them an opportunity to seek asylum. Keith, European nations perhaps not Germany, the Germany itself is gone through its own soul-searching over this. They seem wary and afraid of this mass migration. The reasons for this. We have our own experience in California, was something very similar. Especially you in San Diego you experience a very good response and a bad response to you and people seeking asylum on our borders. Those who protested the arrival of children, you may find that shocking, but many local organizations in church groups open their doors to starting help you -- people. I think Europe is undergoing a very similar crisis of conscience. Around this idea. Germany is behaving the way that Germany should behave, it has a moral responsibility to be at the center of helping Europe and Europeans and others do with these kinds of international migration crisis is because of its own history. But Eastern European countries are often beset by their own problems, and anti-migrant fervor. Also some of them have demagogue and politicians who ramp-up the fear of Islamization of their countries. And those are unreasonably -- unreasonable frankly. I admire Germany stands, we hope that other wealthy European countries will step up. Germany has its own problems, it does not have enough young people to support its programs, so young Syrians represent the best opportunity for them to maintain their standard of living. What are the status of many of the detainees in Europe right now. Speak -- Yes some of them are detained some of them are asked to register with the local police, and file an application for asylum. The end and the we spoke to was living in a dormitory set up by the local government, six to a room, and they shared bathroom and kitchen facilities. He said it was not that come for but it was not that people Different countries are having different policies. One thing that we do not want to see happen is forced deportation of refugees. Sending them back to Syria, or other parts of the world with a might face violence and persecution. That will require the legal systems in the European countries which have generally uniform system to follow the law, and determine whether or not these are economic migrants or are facing a well-founded fear of persecution which is the basic standard for applying for refugee or asylum status. To the be embedded into -- admitted into European countries. Asylum-seekers. Finally, to bring about to the panel for tonight, when of violence breaks out in a region, shouldn't there better be -- be better preparation by the rest of the world, this could be a predictable results of this kind of conflict. Absolutely. As the world is right now, we can absolutely foresee that people willfully when there is violence. When it comes to climate refugees, arising see levels will lead to displacement, in the world does have the opportunity to prepare, but the refugee crisis is characterized by frames of urgency in temporary calm. These things are written into law to provide only short-term solutions. It is not unless we take this seriously, seen that the world is now facing the largest crisis since World War II, should take steps to implement permanent solutions for these people. And again that brings you back to a pathway to citizenship caught there's not preparation of they do not have access to legal rights, just having access to aid is not enough. If I just add briefly, in all of my conversations with Syrian refugees caught those in Europe and in the Middle East, there's a profound sense that they feel they have been abandoned for the world. I cannot disagree with that. It will let you get the last word. The forum is tonight at 6:00 at the Institute for peace and justice. And UC Davis professor will be speaking about his book, rain from stones, at 4 PM just before the forum. And things to Rawan Arar, she is a refugee in international integration researcher.