A case study of Syria- European Refugee Crisis

Question: You are required to carry out an original piece of research on an agreed topic (European refugee crisis ( a case study of syria) ) related to media representations of either a political or social issue. Using Mixed Method Your Research Project should Focus on a specific problem or issue Relate the problem or issue to the relevant literature Have a reasoned research design Provide an analytical and critical approach to the literature and topic Maintain scholarly standards throughout Use sound arguments with valid and reliable evidence Answer: Background of the research One of the moist important problems that the world is facing currently is the problem with the refugees. The host counties are having a tough time accommodating the refugees. The refugees are facing problems in the process of relocation (Siddiqui, 2015). Loss of lives and health problems are some of the common problems that are related with the refugees. On the other hand, the host countries are suffering from economic downturn (Straubhaar, 2015). The European countries are some of the countries in the world, which are suffering from problem like space issues and economic problems while supporting the refugees (Fernndez-Huertas Moraga and Rapoport, 2015). In addition this, the European countries are unable to give proper medical support to the he refugees as they are going in number with the passage of time. However, refugees come to the European countries from all over the world; the refugees from Syria are the largest in number. The recent case study of Aylan Kurdi highlighted the problems that the refugees are facing while relocating from one country to another (Arndt, 2015). This research project will throw light on the specific problem or issue of space and economic crisis faced by the European countries while accommodating the refugees. In addition to this, the research will throw light on the specific problems and issues that the refugees face while travelling to another country. Research aim The aim of this research is to study the crisis faced by the European countries while accommodating as well as the problems faced by the Syrian refugees while relocating to other countries. In addition to this, the research also aims at find out the measures that will be adopted to combat the problems faced by the refugees as well as the European countries. Research objective As it has already been discussed that the problems of the refugees is increasing at a fast rate. Hence, it is required that the project should have certain specific objectives so that it becomes easier for the researcher to reach the desired outcome. The objectives of this research work are: To find out the problems faced by the European countries while accommodating the refuges from Syria To find out the problems face by the refuges from Syria while travelling to the European countries To find out various ways that can be adopted by the countries to combat the problems of the refugees Research questions Once the research objectives are taken care, the research questions help the researcher to follow a proper and path to complete the research work. The research questions that will be taken into consideration for the completion of the project are: What are the problems faced by the European countries while accommodating he Syrian refugees in the country? What are the problems faced by the Syrian refugees while travelling form one country to another? What are the measures that need to be taken care of to solve the issues related to the problems of the refugees? Literature review The refugee crisis is one such crisis, which the world is facing currently. Due to the social and political problems, the citizens of a particular country are forced to migrate to some other countries (Case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece European Court of Human Rights, 2011). In such a situation, both the citizens who are migrating and the countries where the citizens are migrating, face a problem. The worst affected citizens hail from Syria and the countries from Europe are the most affected one when it comes to accommodating the refugees (McDonough and Tsourdi, 2012). Much has been written about the Syrian three-year-old boy, Aylan Kurdi. The images of Aylan Kurdi have caught the media attention when the lifeless body of the boy was found ashore in the Turkish beach. The body of three-year-old Aylan was washed ashore when he and his family were traveling in a small rubber boat to Greece, a country in Europe which is facing a tough time in accommodating the refugees (Cohen, 2011). The image of the boy in blue shorts, read shirt and a pair of sneakers became a symbol of hardships that the Syrians had to face due to the four-year-old conflict that is going on in the country. Figure 1: the image of the lifeless Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi (Source: Cbsnews.com, 2015) Aylan not only died alone in the family. His brother Galip who was five-years-old and his other Rehan also died along with him. Due to the death of the three members the family, Aylans father, Abdullah Kurdi recorded a message which he dedicated to the world. However, the family died while migrating to one of the European countries, he wants the world to open the doors to the Syrians. According to him, it is difficult to cope when someone shuts the door in the face. The Syrians feel the same way. They are migrating to other countries out of fear of life and they expect some amount of sympathy from the other countries in the world. Figure 2: Abdullah Kurdi, father of Aylan Kurdi (Source: Cbsnews.com, 2015) Aylan and his family have taken shelter in Turkey after they fled from Syria. On early September 2015, they tried to make a desperate attempt to reach Greece in order to reach a safe place to stay. The boat overturned when the person who was handling the boat abandoned the vessel in the middle of the sea. It was Abdullah who was left to handle the boat in the mid sea, which eventually led to the overturn. Over a million refugees, not only from Syria but also from the countries like Afghanistan and Iraq have fled to the countries in the European Union in the year 2015 (Naqvi, 2012). It has been recorded that more than 3700 people either died or went missing in the process of migration in the dangerous journey that they undertake while migrating from their own country to another country (Alexander, 2015). The smugglers around the world are hugely benefited due to the relocation of the refugees as said by IOM (International Organization for Migration). The local governments of the countries in Europe are also having a tough time in accommodating the Syrians. More than 30 governors have said that they would not receive any migrants from Syria (Cbsnews.com, 2015). The threat of the Syrian migrants took a serious turn when one of the gunmen involved in the Paris attacks possessed a fake Syrian passport. The gunman used the fake passport to enter Europe by posing as a refugee. The population of the refugees hailing from Syria has increased to a great extent. During the period of July 2014 and July 2015, it has been recorded that over 210,000 applications have been received for the asylum in the European countries from Syria (Horstmann, 2011). The UNHCR has recorded that the number of applications in the month of June has crossed 28,000 and in the month of July, it has crossed 32,000 (Kirici, 2015). The number of Syrian refugees has increased to such an extent that the asylum system in Greece and Hungary has now come to a halt. The government of Hungary is now building a wall along the Serbian border to stop further immigration of the refugees (Novotn, 2015). As most of the parts of Syria is under the control of the Islamic states, hence there is no probable chance of the country to come out of the clutches of the Islamic states in the near future. 7.6 million Syrians who have moved to safer places within the country and more than 4.2 million Syrians have migrated to the foreign lands (Willgress, 2015). The European refugee crisis is another example where the international community has failed to share the burden of the neighboring states and countries (Horstmann, 2011). The international refugees system was build with the idea that the international countries should share the burden of the refugees equally and it is not the burden of one particular country. Until the developed countries come forward to take help, the nation it will be difficult to handle the crisis of the refugees. It is true that the developed countries are also facing problems to handle the increasing population of the refugees, yet it is the duty of the developed countries to help the refugees of the affected countries. The literature review and the case study of the Syrian refugee, Aylan Kurdi will act as the secondary data for the research project. The literature review also points pot the specific problems faced by the refugees in the European countries. Moreover, the problems that are being faced but the European countries will is also highlighted in the literature review. Based in the on the data retrieved in the literature review the research design will be determined which will have a mixed method (Tight and Huisman, 2013). The message given to the world by Aylans father, Abdullah and the statistical data that will be presented in the research methodology will help the researchers to carry out a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis (Wrycza, 2011). Research methodology To complete the research project that deals with the Syrian refugees and the refugee crisis faced by the European countries, it is necessary that the secondary data be used. It is not possible to carry out the research by retrieving the primary data, as it will not be possible for the researcher to talk to the refugees or the higher officials of the European countries regarding the problems that they are facing (Goodson, Loveless and Stephens, 2012). Hence, the case study of Aylan Kurdi and the message of Abdullah Kurdi will act as the data for the qualitative analysis. In addition to this, the statistical data that will be presented in this section will act the quantitative data for the research work (Hoecke, 2011). Hence, mixed method that will take into consideration the quantitative as well as the qualitative approach will be used to complete the research work (Noble and Bestley, 2011). As it has been discussed about the research objective that the main themes of the research work are: Theme 1: The problems faced by the European countries while accommodating the refugees The graphs that will be presented in this section that will indicate the growing number of refugees in the European countries. Eventually, the going number of refugees is making it impossible for the European countries to make space for refugees in the country (Green, 2015). Theme 2: The problems faced by the Syrian refugees while relocating to other countries The problems that the Syrian refuges are facing are presented thought the case study of Aylan Kurdi. The number of refugees from Syria is rising to such an extent that the refugees are dying while travelling from one place to another (Fijnaut, 2015). Figure 3: asylum claims in the year 2015 (Source: BBC News, 2015) The above image shows the asylum claims is highest in Germany out of all the European countries where the Syrian refugees migrate. The total number of asylum claims has reached a number of 942,400 in the month of September to November in the year 2015. Figure 4: asylum application per 100,000 local populations (Source: BBC News, 2015) However, Germany has received the highest application for the asylum seekers. More than 1450 refugees per 100,000 Hungarys local population claimed to stay in the country. In the first half of the year 2015, Hungary holds the highest population of refugees out of all the European countries (Grey, 2015). For Germany, it was 323 and for the United Kingdom, it was 30 applications. However, the number of applications increased in the case of Germany. Figure 5: application for asylums from different counties in the European countries (Source: BBC News, 2015) The above graphs show the counties around the world which have applied in the European countries. The graphs show that between the period of January and October in the year 2015, the number of refugees from Syria has been the highest. Almost 180,000 fist time applicants who have applied for the asylum in the European countries in these10 months. The European countries are already feeling the pressure of the refugees on the countries economic conditions and resources (Gulland, 2015). Out of all the European countries, Hungary, Italy and Greece are the most affected countries where the refugees arrive through boat and overland. In the month of September, the ministers from the various European countries have voted to relocate 120,000 refugees to other countries of Europe from the three above-mentioned countries. However, the reversed plan has been implemented where the number has been reduced to 66,000. The refuges will be mainly from Italy and Greece who will be relocated to other European countries (Krsteska, 2015). The remaining 54,000 refugees will be moved from Hungary but the government is yet to decide where to relocate them as other countries are also facing problem in giving place for the refugees to stay. Figure 6: resettlement Figure 6: plan for the refuges (Source: BBC News, 2015) The above graph shows that Germany is currently the main choice for the ministers for the resettlement of the refugees. Germany will hold the maximum number of migrants both from Italy as well as from Greece. Though the United Kingdom was not ready to accept the refugees in the country, yet, the home offices figures show that there are 1000 Syrian refugees who have been relocated to the United Kingdom under the Vulnerable Person Relocation Scheme. However, to share the burden of the refugees, David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom will accept the 20,000 refugees from Syria in the next five years (Nancheva, 2015). Figure 7: the number of asylum grants to the refugees in the year 2014 (Source: BBC News, 2015) In the year 2014, the European countries offered asylum to 184,655 refugees. In the year 2014, there are 570,000 refugees applied for asylums. As applications for the asylum system is a lengthy process, hence, some of the figures might include those application that have been applied in the ear 2013 (Pope, 2015). There are various ways how the migrants get into the European countries, the waterways as the main route through which the migrants get into the European countries. In the year 2015, between January and November, 920,000 migrants have entered the European countries. Thus, it can be seen that the pressure from the refugees from Syria is building on the European countries gradually. The European countries being open to the sea routes are more open to the refugees who are entering in the state through boats. The refugees have no other options as many of them do not have a valid passport and takes the sea route. The tragedy with Aylan Kurdi happened due to the overcrowded boat that was carrying Aylan and his family. Aylan is just a single case out of the millions refugees who lose their lives during the relocation. Findings of the study After completing the research on the refugee crisis and taking a note of the problems faced by the Syrian refugees by determining the case study of a Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi it can be said that the social problems are the main reason that give rise to problems of the refugees (Schiermeier, 2015). The growing number of the refugees can be seen from the increasing number of asylum applications that the European countries are receiving since the year 2013. The data revealed that the number of refugees from Syria is the highest. However, Germany is receiving the highest number of application for the asylum claims, yet is Hungary, which currently holds the highest population of the refugees. In addition to this, the countries are unable to cope with the growing number of refugees that Hungary has even thought of building a wall to prevent the refugees from entering the countries. Conclusions and Recommendations To solve the problems of the refuges it is necessary to go deep into the issue that make the citizens of one country to relocate to another country. The main problem that Syria is facing is the civil war that is going on in the country from the past four to five years. The government of Syria needs to be strong and take necessary measures to rid of the Islamic countries so that they can restore the peace and harmony of the country. It is the duty of the neighboring developed counties to extend their help to Syria and help the government to maintain peace and harmony in the country. The need of a stronger government is the current necessity for Syria. Once the Syria is able to bring back the peace then only the citizens will not have to move out of the country and live the life like the refugees. References Alexander, M. (2015). DEBUNKED: The European Refugee Crisis and Syria Explained. [online] The Right Stuff. 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