Topic 1 Article:Why Refugee Burden-Sharing Initiatives Fail: Public Goods, Free-Riding and Symbolic Solidarity in the EU
Hello delegates,
The author, Eiko Thielemann, released a paper in December 2017 on misallocation of refugees in EU. The link to the paper is http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcms.12662/full.
Even though it seems lengthy, I’d like you to look at the attached diagrams of section I and read carefully through section II and III. You can skip the rest of sections because they are author's ideas for the future refugee allocations. I don't want these ideas to affect your opinions and would like to see some novel ideas from you.
See you all at conference!
Zishen Liu
Due to the influx of refugees, much discussion about how they should be dealt with is up in the air. Throughout this article, the issue of burden-sharing and its pros and cons are specifically outlined. The delegation of Germany emphasizes the positives of burden-sharing.
ReplyDeleteOver the years Germany has proposed multiple methods of burden-sharing. Looking at the statistics and charts in this article, Germany takes in nearly a third of the total refugees that come into the EU. This is largely due to Germany’s present economy and policies. Certain aspects of Germany’s present economy can’t be duplicated, such as the thousands of job openings and the need for new workers due to the population decline. However, other countries do exist with the need for new young workers and this can be implicated when physical burden-sharing comes into the question. Policies regarding refugees should be regulated and shared between nations. Recently in 2016, the “Integration Law” was passed in Germany which loosened the policies regarding refugees to allow them to become integrated into Germany faster and more effectively, as well as encouraging more refugees to come into the country.
Germany’s new proposed burden-sharing plan takes all of these into consideration. These refugees are coming, whether countries like it or not. They need to promote refugees to come into their countries more evenly so Germany doesn’t keep taking most of the load. Although economically, refugees have a positive and negative effect, Germany sees more positives in increasing their population and adding more people into the workforce to increase GDP and the overall production of the country. Certain policies should be loosened. (For example: Reducing the time until refugees are allowed to enter the workforce after applying for refugee status or reducing the number of years refugees have to wait until applying for citizenship.) Certain things should be added as well like integration programs.
Physical burden-sharing is also essential. With Germany offering asylum in the hundreds of thousands, more countries should try to contribute as well. In order to do this, Germany would like to promote the formation of an organization that will produce suggestions on the amount of refugees each country should willingly allow into their country based on the countries economy and current situation. The delegation of Germany will explain the process in which the number is produced more thoroughly during committee. This new group will also deal with making sure new refugee policies that are set are followed through and give reminders if they are not. They will also aid in the development of integration programs. If a country isn't in the ideal situation to take in refugees, they can instead provide a suggested amount of resources (goods or money) to the countries with high numbers of refugees relative to their country population.
Overall this article really helped us write our position paper so thank you! This is only the tip of the iceberg of what Germany would like to discuss during committee. If you would like to ask us questions or provide suggestions, you may talk to us anytime during the conference.