by Noam Chomsky, Diem25 , May 5, 2016.
In some countries, there is a real refugee crisis.  In Lebanon,
for example, where perhaps one-quarter of the population consists of
refugees from Syria, over and above a flood of refugees from Palestine
and Iraq.  Other poor and strife-ridden countries of the region have
also absorbed huge numbers of refugees, among them Jordan, and Syria
before its descent to collective suicide.  The countries that are
enduring a refugee crisis had no responsibility for creating it. 
Generating refugees is largely a responsibility of the rich and
powerful, who now groan under the burden of a trickle of miserable
victims whom they can easily accommodate.
The US-UK invasion of Iraq alone displaced some 4 million people, of
whom almost half fled to neighboring countries.  And Iraqis continue to
flee from a country that is one of the most miserable on earth after a
decade of murderous sanctions followed by the sledgehammer blows of the
rich and powerful that devastated the ruined country and also ignited a
sectarian conflict that is now tearing the country and the region to
shreds.
There is no need to review the European role in Africa, the source of
more refugees, now passing through the funnel created by the
French-British-US bombing of Libya, which virtually destroyed the
country and left it in the hands of warring militias.  Or to review the
US record in Central America, leaving horror chambers from which people
are fleeing in terror and misery, joined now by Mexican victims of the
trade pact which, predictably, destroyed Mexican agriculture, unable to
compete with highly subsidized US agribusiness conglomerates.
The reaction of the rich and powerful United States is to pressure
Mexico to keep US victims far from its own borders, and to drive them
back mercilessly if they manage to evade the controls. The reaction of
the rich and powerful European Union is to bribe and pressure Turkey to
keep pathetic survivors from its borders and to herd those who escape
into brutal camps.
Among citizens, there are honorable exceptions.  But the reaction of
the states is a moral disgrace, even putting aside their considerable
responsibility for the circumstances that have compelled people to flee
for their lives.
The shame is not new.  Let us keep just to the United States, the
most privileged and powerful country in the world, with incomparable
advantages.  Throughout most of its history it welcomed European
refugees, to settle the lands taken by violence from the assassinated
nations that dwelt in them.  That changed with the Immigration Act of
1924, aimed at excluding particularly Italians and Jews.  There is no
need to dwell on their fate.  Even after the war, survivors still
confined to concentration camps were barred entry.  Today, Roma are
being expelled from France to horrible conditions in Eastern Europe,
descendants of Holocaust victims, if anyone cares.
The shame is deep and persistent. The time has surely come to put it
to an end and to try to attain some decent level of civilization.