「Global Review」当我们谈难民时，我们在谈些什么。

Refugees: Burden of Conscience or Policy Nightmares?

刚刚过去的6月20日“世界难民日”把“难民危机”这个议题又一次推到了国际舆论的风口浪尖。那么，当我们谈难民的时候，我们在谈些什么？今天，我们来聊一聊当今国际社会的“难民危机”在各个主要国家的现状。

首先，我们如何定义“难民”？联合国难民署（UNHCR）给出了如下的官方定义：

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.

那么，近年来世界上的一些主要国家对待难民是什么态度呢？是同情、帮助，还是忧虑、逃避呢？  是敞开大门欢迎，还是“表示同情，但坚决拒绝”呢？

Opinion has become more favorable towards genuine refugees. In 2002 and 2014 the European Social Survey (ESS) asked a question on whether the respondent agreed that “the government should be generous in judging refugee claims”. In the 14 countries in Table 1, the proportion disagreeing or disagreeing strongly declined, in some cases very steeply. On average, opinion became more pro-refugee by 15 percentage points. By contrast, opinion on admitting immigrants from poor countries outside Europe hardened – the share wanting to admit ‘a few’ or ‘none’ increased by an average of 4 percentage points.

Table 1. Percentage that Disagree with Being Generous in Judging Refugee Claims

(Timothy, 2016)

显而易见，欧洲的主要国家近年来更倾向于支持接收难民的政策。 而德国，荷兰和挪威成为欧洲大陆最欢迎难民的国家。

所以接下来，我们以德国为例，关注它的难民政策和难民处置现状。

The refugee and migrant crisis has been one of the most important and most divisive political issues in recent German history. It is first restructuring Germany’s political and economic landscape; second impacting the build-up of post-Brexit Europe; and third changing both Germany’s and Europe’s relationship with other parts of the world. Overall, the refugee and migrant crisis is a phase of transition of the European unification project characterised by deep economic and political ambivalences particularly in its remaining post-Brexit lead nation Germany.

Since September 2015 at least 890,000 refugees have arrived in Germany alone, as the country opened its borders to refugees stuck in Hungary since September 2015. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel declared at the end of August 2015 that there are no limits to the number of refugees Germany can accept coining her famous phrase “we can do it” or “we can cope”.

Some German and European politicians declared Merkel’s “we can handle this” policy to be a great humanitarian gesture. Others saw it as an enlightened political choice serving German interests, given the German labour force shortages, historically low unemployment (6.4% which is the lowest since 1991), historically low interest rates (in the Q2 of 2016 it was 0.08 %) and rising tax revenues.

However, there has also been a growing criticism of the German government, both in Germany and other EU countries. In Germany, the decision to accept more than 1 million Muslim refugees in 2015 and 2016 raised serious concerns about Germany’s cultural preparedness for such step. Already in 2006 the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (a political foundation close to the German Social Democratic Party) published a report claiming that right-wing extremism is neither a problem at the margins of the German society nor is it mainly a phenomenon of Eastern Germany, since it can be found in the very middle of the German society.

And according to a survey analysis conducted by Jürgen Schupp in 2016 only 28 percent of the respondents in Germany are in favour of migrants and refugees being accepted without number and time limits, while a majority of the German society agrees to their stay only as a temporary mechanism for humanitarian reasons, rather than economic investment. At the same time more than 50% of Germans see more risks than opportunities in the massive influx of migrants and refugees.

In a poll carried out by the independent German research institute TNS in cooperation with the renowned leftist weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” of September 2016, a vast majority of Germans rejected the course of Chancellor Angela Merkel and asked for urgent corrections. 82 percent of the more than 1000 interviewees wanted a clear change in the “asylum politics”, as “Der Spiegel” reported on September 9, 2016. Of them, 28 percent were of the opinion that Merkel had to change her politics “in principle and from the bottom up”, 54 percent wanted an at least partial change. Only 15 percent wanted the chancellor to continue with her current “asylum policy”.

Given these economic and political ambivalences, the perspective remains disputed. Despite the closure of the “Balkan route”, the refugee crisis is far from over yet for Germany. Its economic advantages are uncertain, since they can become a boost to economic growth only in the long term but there is also a serious risk of creating a new class of economically underprivileged, poorly educated and unemployed people without proper institutional solutions which may not find much consensus among the voters. Second, the refugee and migrant topic presents political ambiguities that are both of concern to Germany and the European Union (Roland B, 2016).

综上，尽管最初在开放接收难民时，德国民众大多表示了支持，认为可以为本国带来丰富的廉价劳动力并助力经济发展。但由于德国总理对难民“过分”宽松的政策导致一定程度的”社会骚乱和经济文化危机“，部分德国政府官员以及民众表示出强烈不满，并表示不再欢迎长期驻扎的难民，并认为默克尔的政策亟待改善。

下面，让我们的镜头转向美国。

Fewer than 1 percent of formally recognized refugees worldwide are resettled annually, with about 125,600 individuals departing to resettlement countries in 2016. The United States has historically led the world in terms of refugee resettlement, and today remains the top resettlement country. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, the United States resettled 84,994 refugees. Beyond accepting refugees for resettlement from countries of first asylum, the United States also grants humanitarian protection to asylum seekers who present themselves at U.S. ports of entry or claim asylum from within the country; in FY 2015 (the most recent data available), the United States granted asylum to 26,124 individuals.

Global mass displacement reached a record high of 65.3 million people by the end of 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Approximately 21.3 million of these individuals were refugees, 40.8 million were internally displaced persons (IDPs), and 3.2 million were asylum seekers. The ongoing civil war in Syria alone has led 4.9 million Syrians to seek refuge in neighboring countries, most notably Turkey and Lebanon, and caused 6.6 million to be internally displaced.

In response to the worsening global humanitarian crisis, the Obama administration increased the number of refugees the United States accepts annually, from 85,000 in fiscal year (FY) 2016 to 110,000 in FY 2017 (Jie, 2017).

An executive order signed Jan. 27 by President Donald Trump suspends refugee admissions for 120 days while security procedures are reviewed, though the resettlement of persecuted religious minorities may continue during this time on a case-by-case basis. Under the plan, the maximum number of refugees allowed into the U.S. in fiscal 2017 will likely decline from 110,000 to 50,000. Separately, admission of Syrian refugees will be suspended pending a revision of security screening measures.

About 3 million refugees have been resettled in the U.S. since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, which created the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program and the current national standard for the screening and admission of refugees into the country.

This is not the first-time U.S. refugee admissions have been stopped. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. largely suspended refugee resettlement for three months while security measures were examined. Today, the refugee admissions process can take up to 18 to 24 months, and includes a review of applications by the State Department and other federal agencies, in-person interviews, health screenings and, for many, cultural orientations (David, 2017).

自特朗普总统上台之后，美国的难民政策急转直下，由奥巴马总统提高难民接收名额的政策转为特朗普延迟难民申请并大量减少接收难民的额度的新政策。

最后，亚洲地区比较受关注的是马来西亚的罗兴亚人问题。

Refugees from Myanmar comprise mainly the Christian Chins and Muslim Rohingyas. The Rohingyas, who were made stateless by the Myanmar government in the 1970s, initially fled to Bangladesh. In the 1980s they started arriving in Malaysia and were given temporary protection. After fleeing systematic discrimination, forced labour, and other abuses in Burma, Rohingyas faced a whole new set of abuses in Malaysia. These included beatings, extortion, and arbitrary detention. The refugees are forced to live in poverty and constant fear of expulsion from the country. Human Rights Watch’s Report, Living in Limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia (2000), details the treatment of Rohingyas in Malaysia. Denied legal recognition as refugees, Rohingya children are often not permitted to attend school, and many are denied health care. They are also at constant risk of arrest.

Malaysian government officials detain and deport even those persons the UNHCR has recognized as refugees.

Malaysia does not generally return refugees to Myanmar, but it continues to expel them to Thailand. It does this because Burma will not accept them back and because they generally enter Malaysia by way of the Thai border. However, Thailand has also not ratified the Refugee Convention and its Protocol either, and Burmese expelled to Thailand risk detention and deportation to Burma. According to USCRI, Malaysia ‘handed others [Burmese] to agents or smugglers. These refugees either had to pay ransoms, or were smuggled back to Malaysia or were trafficked by the agents’ (USCRI Malaysia 2006:1). Rohingyas were estimated to be about 10,000 in 2006, and as stated above, the government has initiated the process of issuing them work permits (Kaur, 2007).

针对被缅甸驱逐的罗兴亚人，马来西亚采取了极为强硬的政策，仅仅给予极其短暂的保护并剥夺绝大部分的政治权利，并最终将其驱逐至泰国。

最后，我国外交部在难民问题上的表态又是怎样的呢？

China is taking a tough approach to refugees after press reports issued on World Refugee Day fuel awareness of the ongoing crisis of displaced people around the world.

Beijing's Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently said all "refugees should return to their homeland," during a visit to Beirut, Lebanon, while suggesting China has no interest in taking refugees, Chinese news network Reference News reported Monday.

"Nations in the Middle East are carrying an immense burden in accepting refugees from Syria and other places," Wang said. "Refugees are not immigrants and are roaming the world, after losing their homeland. I look forward to the time when all refugees return to their homeland to rebuild their hometowns."

In Beirut, Wang did not offer a Chinese solution to the refugee crisis, an indication the world's second-largest economy is rejecting the idea of granting asylum to displaced Syrians or other peoples fleeing war and famine.

The Chinese foreign minister also said Beijing has long been providing humanitarian aid at refugee camps within the framework of the United Nations (Elizabeth, 2017).

王毅外长代表中国表示，加快叙利亚问题的解决进程是当前缓解难民危机的重中之重，政策重心应为帮助难民重建家园。中国一直秉承人道主义精神，给予遭受战争创伤的国家和人民力所能及的帮助，也愿意为难民重建家园尽一份力。

以上就是欧美亚几个较具代表性的国家对难民问题的态度。从各国政府和民众的态度转变上来看，难民问题依旧是国际社会面临的复杂而棘手的重大问题。如何给予大量难民足够的居住地，如何促进难民和当地人的社会融合，如何平衡难民与本国居民之间的各种经济文化矛盾，都是需要国际社会各方进一步思考、努力斡旋的。

那么，对于难民问题，正在阅读此文的你又有什么看法呢？

References:

1.     Timothy H. (2016, May 23). The migration crisis and refugee policy in Europe. Retrieved from http://voxeu.org/article/migration-crisis-and-refugee-policy-europe

2.     Roland B. (2016, October 4). Germany and the Refugee Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/04/10/2016/germany-and-refugee-crisis

3.     Jie Z & Jeanne B. (2017, June 7). Refugees and Asylees in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states

4.     David M. (2017 January 27). Donald Trump’s Un-American Refugee Policy. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/opinion/donald-trumps-un-american-refugee-policy.html

5.     Kaur, A. (2007). Refugees and refugee policy in Malaysia. UNEAC Asia Papers, 18(1), 77-90.

6.     Elizabeth S. (2017, June 26). China's top diplomat: Syrian, other refugees should 'go home'. Retrieved from https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/06/26/Chinas-top-diplomat-Syrian-other-refugees-should-go-home/2321498496117/