If the United States did take the lead — and is proud of taking the lead — in uniting Europe and NATO against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, then the United States should take the lead in solving the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
It is not only a moral obligation, however. It is a golden opportunity.
On its face, President Biden’s announcement that the US will take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees sounds like the high road. But consider:
Poland’s population in 2022 is 37,578,000 people. As of the end of March, Poland had 2.3 million Ukrainian refugees.
These refugees constitute roughly 6.12% of Poland’s population.
Moldova’s population is 3,493,000 people in 2022. As of the end of March, it has 344,454 Ukrainian refugees.
These refugees constitute roughly 9.86% of Moldova’s population.
Romania’s population in 2022 is 19,038,000 people. As of the end of March, it had 467,203 Ukrainian refugees.
These refugees constitute roughly 2.45% of the population.
The population of the United States in 2022 is 334,805,269 million people.
A total of 100,000 Ukrainian refugees would constitute roughly 0.0003% of the American population.
No doubt, the Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Moldova, Romania and elsewhere will move — up to a point. That point will be very low indeed if the United States, with roughly 10 times the population of Poland, takes in Ukrainian refugees on the order of tens-of-thousands-of percentage points less than Poland takes in.
Slice the numbers however you want. Even say that in the best of circumstances some of these refugees will be able to return to Ukraine. Still, the bulk of these refugees will remain in the immediately adjacent countries to Ukraine. Tragically, there may be boat people, there may be mass surges of refugees at borders, there may be humanitarian crises, but when all is said and done, countries like Poland, Moldova and Romania will bear the brunt.
The US should do much better than take in 100,000 of these refugees, not only for the refugees, but for its own good.
Still more, it would be one more repudiation of the wicked American immigration policy, initiated in 1924 and not ended until 1965, that discriminated on the basis of country of origin. The main intended victims in that period were Jewish and Italian immigrants. Before that, even without formal immigration restrictions, Asians were radically excluded by being denied the possibility of naturalization.
Since the repeal of these restrictive prejudicial policies, the US has become entangled in other immigration issues, but one of them is not country of origin. A strong Ukrainian presence in the US, or the lack thereof, is no reason not to welcome many more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in the current circumstances.
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
