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11/19/2015 Why Don't Gulf States Accept More Refugees? - Bloomberg View
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-states-accept-more-refugees- 1/3
Calls are getting louder for the oilrich Gulf states to take in more Syrian refugees. In the Arabworld itself, the opinion that they are not doing enough is widespread. Those countries, however,may not really be suitable destinations for the asylum seekers precisely because of their oftendeceptive cultural closeness to most of the Syrians fleeing the conflict.
The widely held opinion that Saudi Arabia, the biggest of the Gulf nations, hasn't taken in a singlerefugee may well be incorrect. Nabil Othman, acting regional representative to the Gulf region atthe United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, told Bloomberg there were 500,000 Syrians in thatcountry. Saudi Arabia, like all of the Gulf states, is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention,so these displaced people are not officially designated as refugees.
One could still argue, however, that even Othman's figure isn't enough relative to the Saudipopulation of almost 31 million, especially given its role in funding and arming one side in theconflict. Lebanon has accepted 1.3 million refugees more than a quarter of its population.
There are reasons, however, why Saudi Arabia doesn't let in more people and why the United ArabEmirates prefer to pay to equip and maintain refugee camps in other countries, close to Syrianborders.
An overwhelming majority of the displaced Syrians are Sunni Muslims. Of the paltry 1,519Syrians the U.S. has taken in since 2011, 1,415 were Sunnis. The Saudi population is alsopredominantly Sunni. There's a catch, however: Many Sunni areas of Syria have served as a basefor the Islamic State, which the Saudi and U.A.E. air forces are helping to bomb. Islamic State is
IMMIGRATION
Why Don't Gulf States AcceptMore Refugees?
By Leonid Bershidsky
SEPT 4, 2015 10:26 AM EDT
a A
11/19/2015 Why Don't Gulf States Accept More Refugees? - Bloomberg View
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-states-accept-more-refugees- 2/3
hostile to the Saudi regime, and it's important to them whether the refugees are fleeing IslamicState or the bombings.
Sectarian difficulties have already surfaced in Muslim countries that have been open to displacedSyrians, upsetting often fragile ethnic and religious balances. In Turkey, Syrians initially settled inthe province of Hatay, which has a sizable Arab Alawite minority. The local Alawites weren'twelcoming and the Turkish government made an effort to resettle the refugees. Elsewhere, itbecame clear that local Christian minorities were scared of the newcomers, too. Kurdish refugees,though Sunni like most Turks, were best directed to areas with bigger Kurdish populations. Ingeneral, the longer the refugees stayed, the more the locals resented them and perceived them as athreat.
In Lebanon, where the SunniShia balance is especially fine, the authorities are afraid of furthertipping it in favor of Sunnis, given the tendency of the Shia Hezbollah militias to react violently toany provocation. There are now visa restrictions in place for new arrivals and renewing residencyhas been made more difficult for those already in Lebanon.
In Egypt, which initially welcomed Syrians, the regime of president Abdel Fattah elSisi suspectsthe refugees of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Sisi has vowed to eradicate, soentry has become more difficult and there have been deportations.
In the Gulf states, potential problems are complicated by the already large expatriate populations:In some of them, locals are outnumbered by workers from neighboring Arab states, India andSoutheast Asia.
To these countries, letting in more foreigners doesn't just mean sharing the (shrinking) oil wealth,but increasing the potential for political, ethnic and sectarian tension.
The fine distinctions of politics and faith, which are often invisible to Westerners, matter in theMiddle East. They produce wars that are as devastating as they are difficult for outsiders to
11/19/2015 Why Don't Gulf States Accept More Refugees? - Bloomberg View
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-04/why-don-t-gulf-states-accept-more-refugees- 3/3
comprehend.
It's not important that Syrians don't feel welcome in Saudi Arabia and the other petrostates, andtherefore don't want to go there. If Europe devises a workable quota system for refugees, manywill end up in countries where they had never contemplated living, like Bulgaria or Lithuania. Itdoes, however, make sense that they don't end up in countries where their presence could turn anunsteady equilibrium into chaos.
In Europe, many opponents of immigration say Muslims should be kept out because they bringtheir wars and feuds with them. But even several million immigrants distributed across theEuropean Union would account for less than 1 percent of the general population, and very fewlocals would take part in such imported conflicts. Jihadists posing as migrants might, of course,conduct terrorist attacks, but that risk exists without refugees. Besides, the political andhumanitarian practices in Western societies, as well as a more even distribution of wealth, have acalming effect. Research has shown that firstgeneration immigrants in the U.S. commit fewercrimes than locals.
It would be nice if the Gulf states opened their doors wider to Syria's refugees. Yet Europeans andAmericans shouldn't try to shift attention to the petrostates' perceived indifference, so that theycan do less themselves. The West is much better equipped for the task of handling this humanfallout from the catastrophe underway in the Middle East, and Europe needs the people who arecoming in.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP andits owners.
To contact the author of this story:Leonid Bershidsky at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:Marc Champion at [email protected]