As Europe—along with many Middle Eastern countries—faces a massive influx of migrants, many of them fleeing the Syrian and Libyan civil wars, Aryeh B. Bourkoff and Ari R. Hoffman suggest looking to Israel’s extensive and perhaps unique experience in settling refugees within its borders:
Both necessity and ideology have placed welcoming and integrating immigrants at the heart of Israel’s national ethos. . . . Israel, which more than doubled its population in the first decade of its existence and permanently changed its national complexion by admitting Jews from Minsk to Morocco, is a vital example for today’s crisis. . . .
In particular, this record of absorptions suggests that long-term, the key to success is maintaining a two-way street. Refugees had to do difficult things to fit in to Israeli society, changing their occupations, languages, and sometimes even the nature of their families. They often lived in periphery towns, took low-paying jobs, and for a long time lacked a robust political voice. Nevertheless, over time they have contributed to Israel uniquely and irrevocably, from politics to pop culture. Israel, like America, is inconceivable without this diversely peopled mosaic.
Israel’s example illustrates that our approach to the current refugee crisis cannot only be a matter of numbers, quotas, and background checks. We have to consider our basic values. . . . Perhaps the most difficult kind of accounting revolves not around budgets but relates to the almost impossible equipoise between cultures that is likely to ensue from profound demographic change. Both the American and Israeli examples show, however, that there is enormous payoff in the long run for farsighted policy and principles.
Read more on Observer: http://observer.com/2016/04/want-to-abrorb-refugees-follow-israels-lead/