The horrifying images from central Europe of tens of thousands of Syrian and other refugees seeking new homes in the West underscore several conclusions about the human interest these days.<\/p>\n
One is the extent of the refugee crisis and the failure of the global community to respond to it over recent decades. That crisis long precedes today\u2019s focus on Europe.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve noted before<\/a>, we\u2019re talking about 45 million people who are on the run, crossing international borders or fleeing to a safer part of their home country in search of a better life and freedom from violence.<\/p>\n A second conclusion, which applies universally, is that mass immigration spawns the ugliest sort of racism.\u00a0 Potential host countries for refugees and migrants will say that they simply cannot accommodate so many new arrivals.\u00a0 But we know better: White-run governments often don\u2019t want dark-skinned, non-Christian others.\u00a0 That\u2019s the message that has been openly sent by Donald Trump and Viktor Orban, Hungary\u2019s president.\u00a0 Trump would simply deport people, no questions asked. Orban wrote for a German newspaper<\/a>: \u201cThose arriving have been raised in another religion and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity.\u201d\u00a0 Is there any doubt that many other national leaders privately believe the same?<\/p>\n Third is the imperative of a negotiated settlement of the Syrian civil war. There is, after all, a limit to how many new arrivals from the Middle East can be accommodated by European Union countries.\u00a0 The EU and others, including Russia and the U.S., must focus on Syria, from which an estimated 49 percent of the current mass exodus originates.\u00a0 As one authority has put it<\/a>, \u201cThe migrant crisis in Europe is essentially self-inflicted.\u201d Lina Khatib, a research associate at the University of London and until recently the head of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut states, \u201cHad European countries sought serious solutions to political conflicts like the one in Syria and dedicated enough time and resources to humanitarian assistance abroad, Europe would not be in this position today.\u201d<\/p>\n