What does Syracuse think about the refugee crisis?

At the moment there are 4.1 million refugees abroad and 629,000 of these refugees are registered in Jordan alone.

There is a tremendous amount of people who are internally and externally displaced and many of the refugees are found dead while trying to flee their homeland.

How would you feel if the risk of escaping your country was just as high as staying put?

19 percent of the Syracuse community is made up of international students and I wanted to know their reactions to this crisis. I walked around campus and stopped both international and American students to ask them how they would feel if this was to happen to their country.

Irish Naval Service rescuing migrants from an overcrowded boat

Ashanna Mckenzie, USA, Fifth semester Information Technology and Advertising

How would you react if a civil war started in your country?

“It’s hard to put myself in that situation especially coming from America. You would never think that anything like that would happen. It is our duty to help out, but I think that helping can only go with so far with what we can do. We definitely should be more involved and cover it more instead of covering what’s going on with the Kardashians.”

Christina Bahou, Jordan, Junior Architecture and Entrepreneurship & Emerging Enterprises

What are your feelings on the Syrian Crisis? What if this was happening over in Jordan?

“Honestly, I would be depressed. I admire them so much for what they are doing and it’s not like up to them what’s happening to them.

At the same time they are still fighting to get to somewhere safe where they can take care of their families even though a lot of them have died trying to escape.

No one can actually understand what they are going through because it is such a hard situation that it’s not relatable to people who haven’t gone through crisis or war or something that has been taking away from them as much as these people have.”

Jacob Grasso, USA, Junior Mechanical Engineering and Management

What would you do if you were forced to leave your country?

“Well, that would stink, you would lose everything and you have to restart an entire life.

I probably wouldn’t leave, I would probably stay in my country because once you get over there to wherever you go, how would you restart your whole life with nothing?”

Josiah Hinkle, USA, Fourth year Architecture

Imagine you have to leave America because of a civil war. What are your first thoughts?

“I would feel very nervous and scared about the idea of leaving home. People [would rather] choose to move to another country, although in this case it makes it harder when the decision is made for you.”

Fatima Siwaju, Trinidad and Tobago, Religion

Syrian refugees escape to Budapest railway station

How would you feel if you had to flee your homeland to another country for safety?

“I think it is devastating, I don’t want to even try to say that I can understand that experience because I cannot, and if I try to find similar experiences I feel that it would make their experiences less important in a way. It is a life transforming and devastating scenario.”