Refugees and Racism and how to respond to it

Racism is bad, every form of it. I've seen it been used by lots of races against another and it's not just the domain of white people as I've been on the receiving end a few times.

As for this refugee crisis, it's terrible whats happening in Syria but echoing Shadowcat's post, an awfully large percentage of the people trying to get into certain EU countries* seem to be young men, estimates from various sources across the spectrum say about 80/90%, some will be attached to the women/children obviously but that is a large percentage. I've seen interviews with some men and then they say they've left their wife and children behind(!), if I was getting bombed out I'd try and take my whole family, not just save myself but admittedly I don't know what I'd actually do in reality. And reports from Germany have been that a large chunk of the people are claiming to be Syrian trying to take advantage of a bloody civil war and that fake and real Syrian passports have been found being sold to people.

*With these refugees coming to the EU, they only want to go to certain states like Sweden and Germany but there are going to be problems down the road for local populations. There have been riots in Sweden the past few years and some German communities are having issues as asylum seekers don't integrate well, partly because of issues with the German education system.

Refugees also tend to be housed where housing is cheap, which is mainly because there are a lack of jobs in an area and services tend to get more pressure, an article in The Guardian is a good read for the issues of local populations. I'll add a bit of anecdotal evidence from me to that as well. A lot of people that are pro-immigration tend to be buffered in that live in areas where a lot of refugees will never be placed which is cheaper housing where lower class workers or non-workers due to lack of work live. Now I'm lucky enough to live in a relatively well off area of a pretty depressed area so there aren't many immigrants directly on the front door, there are some, both first generation and later generations and I get along fine with them (Greek, Hong Kong and German). However when I go to Middlesbrough or Stockton where there is a surplus of houses because of the lack of work, immigrants have been placed in housing and ghettos have formed (there's one right next to my old uni, Teesside University and a large chunk up the main road) where you don't feel exactly welcome even though I've tried being friendly to people (the Golden Rule and all that). This means what work is available is harder to get in an already bad area and some of the local services are having issues with no extra money available which pushes people into being overtly racist/xenophobic be because when people are being crapped on they'll want a target and the easiest is the new people moving in instead of government letting them down (a bit of Divide and Rule never hurts).

This is one of the reasons that UKIP did so well in the North East and other deprived areas, while not getting any seats in the North East (thankfully) and one overall, they managed to come 2nd in an awful lot of them because people that are generally left wing are feeling let down by the government. Again, to reiterate, I'm not Racist or Xenophobic, but people getting dumped in the worse off areas of the country and not getting helped is not a good idea for the entire community, not just the people that already live in them (born or moved here) or the recent immigrants.

I agree that we need to take people and (I can't believe I'm writing this), I agree with Cameron that the most vulnerable should be taken from the camps in the neighboring countries, processing people outside of the EU before they try and risk their lives in anything that floats, I know the EU proposed this but they're not the fastest reacting organisation are they? This is what should have been done years ago by the EU as a collective when this was starting instead of leaving it until it can't be ignored anymore. We need to up the money for refugees in the countries around Syria as it's not realistic to house everyone is the EU and get the richer states to the south of there to take people or at least help in funding and supplies (UAE, Saudi, Qatar). The refugees we take should be spread around the country in balanced small groups so that they integrate and don't feel isolated at the same time.