Accepting refugees is nothing but idealism

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Accepting refugees is nothing but idealism

Accepting refugees is nothing but idealism

I am writing to express my opinion about the Sept. 15, 2015, Korea JoongAng Daily article, “Syrians trapped in Korea ask for aid,” by Cho Hyekyung. In the article, I read humanitarianism attitudes for Syrian refugees. The difficulty of those who are trying to receive humanitarian status in South Korea was pointed out, and the exertion of Refuge pNan to help the refugees was also described. I am quite sure that Syria became a land of war. And in the aspect of humanitarianism, I can understand their fear of death. But I believe that becoming emotional is not always good for two reasons.

The first reason is based on an economic aspect. To take care of them, the government should provide residence, provisions and other social welfare benefits for them by levying taxes on citizens of our country. And if the government accepts them, more and more refugees will come to South Korea and seek jobs to earn money. I believe what we should remember is that there are a number of South Korean citizens to whom the government should provide workplaces.

Second, accepting them could cause an unstable security situation. These days, the number of foreign criminals has increased. It is estimated that it has increased 25 percent over the last three years. If the civil war in Syria is prolonged, the refugees who reside in South Korea cannot return to their native place. And even more refugees will decide to reside here. As they don’t have enough provisions and jobs, they are likely to commit crimes just for a living, which will obviously cause a serious unstable security problem.

Helping other people is a good behavior. But a reason for being of a country is for its own citizens. Accepting a great deal of refugees eliminates that reason. To accept them for only human rights and humanitarianism is nothing but idealism, which is different from reality.


Steven, Resident in Seoul
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