Refugees and Work

[ysabetwordsmith]

Because refugees are usually forbidden to work, they are forcibly prevented from autonomous support, and kept dependent. Citizens see them as a drain on resources better spent elsewhere, but it's not because the refugees actually are mooches. It's because someone else decided they don't deserve to support themselves.  It doesn't just victimize them and make them less able to survive if they ever escape the aid trap.  It also encourages other people to hate and blame them.  >_<  A very efficient work of evil, that.  

The sensible way to handle refugees is with maximum throughput.  Get them out of dangerous places into safe places as fast as possible. Figure out which people are currently too damaged to work and get them health care, so that hopefully some of those folks will recover.  (They're refugees, though; some never will.)  Get the able workers working.  Put the kids in school.  Identify any refugees who know more than their native language; employ them as interpreters.  Refugees can efficiently meet many needs for each other when they share the same culture, which also reduces the burden on the host country.  Conversely, provide opportunities for cultural fusion between refugees and hosts who wish to interact, so people can put down roots.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> You know, the USA used to do this. But, I guess a world war and a Great Depression will change things. <<

The USA has had ~200 years of very patchy, often abominable, occasionally brilliant practices regarding immigrants and refugees.

>> Still... this is a great way to kick-start a country. I wonder if it would work on an interplanetary scale...<<

Yes, it does.

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

I think for that sort of thing to work, you need passage to wherever to be affordable for the refugees, or at the very least, some means for them to work off the cost of it once they're there.

Which when you consider that Elon Musk has said the cost-per-person of his 'Mars Colony Transport System' prices out about $80k I think was the quote, once it's making regular round trips... that could work out. [refugees from Syria and China pay that much to the criminal gangs to get to Europe.]

Still think we need a stargate though...

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I think for that sort of thing to work, you need passage to wherever to be affordable for the refugees, or at the very least, some means for them to work off the cost of it once they're there. <<

It depends on a lot on what stardrive(s) you have, which affects the cost. In my main SF setting, it's common for people to work-trade their way from one system to another. Some systems that are close to each other have a lot of back-and-forth exchange of people. Common Ground, Picture This, and the Freedom System are all pretty close with Jericho and Promised land close to each other and not far away.

>> Which when you consider that Elon Musk has said the cost-per-person of his 'Mars Colony Transport System' prices out about $80k I think was the quote, once it's making regular round trips... that could work out. [refugees from Syria and China pay that much to the criminal gangs to get to Europe.] <<

Which creates a whole different problem of human trafficking.

>>Still think we need a stargate though...<<

I agree, hence The Blueshift Troupers. Access there depends largely on location. In the Annula it's cheap and easy, but the farther out you go, the fewer ships there are and the harder it gets to find transportation. Mostly they use hiveships and jumpgates, but they do still have mechanical ships.

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

You know.. Musk could put the human traffickers out of business actually.

Think about it a moment, his rockets could launch from barges out in international waters. [they land on the barges, I think the plan at the moment is to launch from pad 39a at the Cape, but he has to pay off the lease and is subject to American law, which is becoming less friendly.]

So.. offer free passage to the barge, and an affordable passage one-way off planet to refugees, many of whom various countries want gone anyway...

The gangs go out of business because they've just been under-cut, same way as many of the Columbian cartels have gone out of the weed growing business.