Secondly, the fact that “refugees have a negative effect on our society” is groundless and wrong. There is little to no evidence of this negative effect, most of the evidence comes from stories of small offences committed by asylum seekers, who know no better, blown out of proportion by right-wing newspapers, who assume its their civic duty to protect the land from this “swarm of foreign invaders”. Whenever a new building is proposed to hold the refugees while their plea for asylum is being considered, the plans are attacked by a torrent of protests. When images of this are shown in the media, it creates the illusion it is the refugees who are causing the problem, when, in fact, they haven’t done anything.
Another aspect the media exaggerates is the amount of Asylum Seekers that Britain takes in each year. In 2002, 110,700 people tried to gain asylum in Britain. Yes, this is a shockingly high figure, a 20% increase on 2001, however; only around half of these were accepted. Also, in Britain, 110,700 is 1.8 refugees per 1000 British citizens, in Austria, for example, 37,000 Asylum applications were filed in 2002, that is a staggering 4.6 refugees per 1000 Austrian citizens. Put simply, Britain does not take in many refugees. Also many people argue that the screening process for refugees is flawed, and that many who are granted asylum in the country were criminals in their homeland. However, in 2002, 49% of applications for asylum were turned down, 33% of which were down to the background checks carried out by the government. That’s 36531 Asylum applications turned down due to the Refugees past.
Another argument put forward by those attacking the statement is that the refugees create racial tension in the communities the government places them in. However, again, there is very little evidence of this tension, in many places quite the opposite is seen. If children are exposed to the foreign cultures during their development, they quickly get used to them, this has the effect of lowering racial tension in the future.
One of the main arguments for the statement is the basic fact that theses people face persecution or even death if they are not given asylum somewhere. How can it be argued that they have a negative effect on our society? These people obviously need our help, whether or not they have an impact on our society is irrelevant, they have the right to live, denying them access to the country is denying them the right to live. Letting refugees into our country is our moral obligation, we cannot just turn them away because a minority argue they are bad people.
Lastly, It is argued that Refugees take our jobs. This argument is fundamentally flawed, as Refugees cannot gain employment until their asylum application is accepted, this process rarely takes less than 14 months. Then, when their asylum is eventually accepted, the refugees are forced into the lowest form of employment, either basic cleaning jobs or being thrown between low level office jobs is the fate of most who do eventually find employment. People may complain, but they do not realise the poor deal these refugees are receiving, yes, some refugees my manage to struggle up the ladder into a position above the average British person, but those who do are a very, very rare breed.
In conclusion, the statement ‘Refugees come to Britain for help, support and most importantly safety. It is wrong of the general public to assume refugees have a negative effect on our society’ is true, as those who do come to the country are fleeing injustice, yes there must be some who try to abuse the system, fighting to get into the country to reap the benefits of our generous welfare system, but that is true of any system, there will always be a few cheaters who feel the need to abuse it. The negative effect described in the statement seems to be no existent in Britain, there are few cases of refugees causing trouble, on average they commit less crime then the average British citizen, the only negative effect seen is the commotion caused by us Brits when it is announced that the ever present stream of refugees may be directed in our direction.
