Poverty and Development Country

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Institution

Introduction

The refugee problem has always been controversial especially in the contemporary world. Research shows that the United States absorbs 60,000 displaced individuals every year, with a large percentage of them going to California. According to the UN, there are about 15.2 million refugees in the world spending more than 17 years in camps. In addition, a high number of individuals are yet to have their refugee status approved. On the same note, about 3 to 12 million people are stateless, in which case they have no access to basic amenities. Environmental refugees number about 36 million people. Going by the statement that “home is where your heart is”, it is evident that home is essentially where the needs of an individual are met.

While refugee camps are mainly avenues of welcoming and assisting strangers, the help is not always available especially when refugees have been languishing in the camps for decades. This becomes even worse when the individuals helping them become hostile towards them and accuse them of committing crimes. On the same note, an extremely minute percentage of Gross Domestic Product (0.04%) is used in assisting refugees. This complicates the matters for refugees especially in Africa, forcing them to venture out of the camps in search of food as the assistance that they get in the camps is not sufficient to support them (Mathew, 2013). They leave the camps in an effort to look for a way to satisfy their needs, or rather a place to call home. It is worth noting, however, that the local populace usually does not want them in their land or even surroundings as they believe that the government and other agencies have taken care of the refugees appropriately in the camps. This is the same case in instances where refugee camps are broken and the refugee status of an individual changed (Mathew, 2013). In spite of the changed status, former refugees are not entirely saved as they encounter enormous challenges in an effort to recollect their lives. The presence of refugees has a bearing on development in any country. This is especially considering that they are attributed with increased crime rates especially in instances where the resources channeled to helping them are insufficient. On the same note, refugees have a negative impact on social cohesion as seen in the cases where villagers get hostile to them in the belief that they are properly catered for in the camps. This is in addition to the fact that the resources used in assisting them could have been channeled to other developmental enterprises.

References

Mathew, R (2013). Presentation on Refugees, Poverty and Developing Countries.