Jamie Glueck for The New York Times

No Refugee Crisis for the United States: Still a Moral Mandate to Do More for Mexican Immigrants

by Jamie Glueck for The New York Times

Due to the civil war in Syria, more than 2 million Syrians have fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq. In March of 2013, more than 10,000 Syrians per day were leaving Syria for safety and better economic opportunities elsewhere. According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Afghanistan is the largest source of refugees worldwide; approximately 95% of these Afghani refugees live in Pakistan and Iran. Worldwide there are more than 21 million people classified as refugees under the United Nations standards. Under those standards, approximately 40% of the refugees were from Asia, 22% from Europe, 23% from Africa, and the smallest percentage from the Americas.

While the United Nations and the world’s largest economies, like the United States, all have numerous aid programs, the burden of these refugees disproportionately falls on the host country and its citizens. They are the ones who inevitably shoulder the largest burden of housing, feeding, educating, providing medical care, and coping with what can often be an onslaught of refugees.

The United States finds itself fortunate in that its geography spares it from most of the hardships of the global refugee crisis. With the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on each side, and Canada to its north, at least three of its borders do not present any imminent refugee threat.

Mexico has approximately 113 million citizens; it’s the world’s tenth largest oil producer and 14th largest economy. According to Goldman Sachs, Mexico is expected to be the world’s fifth largest economy by 2050, and, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mexico falls within the category of an “Upper-Middle Income Country.” Moreover, Mexico’s unemployment rate is almost half that of the United States at 4.25%. Yet despite Mexico’s successes, many still seek to leave for opportunities in the United States. Mexico’s per capita income is still very low, its jobs largely pay low wages, and crime is rampant. According to the OECD, 15% of Mexicans have reported being the victim of a crime, second only to South Africa globally.

The United States refugee problem is really a problem of illegal immigration. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 57% of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. come from Mexico. President Obama has made clear that these immigrants will not be returned to Mexico. According to the President, the choice is either to leave this group of individuals in legal limbo or create a mechanism to put them on a path to legalization. The Coalition for Immigration Reform makes clear that it costs the U.S. substantially more to do nothing, because these individuals receive services like emergency medical care, but pay no taxes. Permitting these individuals a path to legalization would both reduce costs and increase revenues for the U.S. Government. Unlike in war-torn Syria where refugees are fleeing chemical weapons and an oppressive regime, the U.S. problem seems simple by comparison.