#SyrianRefugees Editorial

Posted on by Mengmeng Tang

The crisis in Syria affects more than 12 million people. More than 240,000 people have been killed, including 12,000 children. [1] More and more Syrians are coming to the U.S. hoping to flee war and crisis. Since 2011, 1,500 Syrian refugees have been accepted into the U.S. [2] However, due to Paris terrorist attacks in November, 31 U.S. governors say they oppose accepting Syrian refugees in their states. [2] This has caused a huge debate on Twitter.

As it was around Thanksgiving time, a lot of posts that are pro accepting refugees highlight their views with “thankful” humanism spirit. Newsweek tweets about an article on their website called “Here’s how you can help #SyrianRefugees at the Thanksgiving table today”. There are also tweets using memes to address the awkward moment when “refusing to help refugees while celebrating a holiday about helping refugees”. CNN International tweets a new article saying, “Canada will resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees” compared to the fact that 31 states in the US are opposing accepting them. Personal stories also went viral. A Toronto couple canceled their wedding in order to host fundraising for Syrian refugees.

Opposing views also have quite a bit presence on Twitter. People who hold those views mainly concern about accepting refugees will bring terrorists to the states. They are also tweets mentioning the fact that a lot of those refugees are men who have the ability to fight for their countries and they flee from the crisis, while there are Kurdish women stay behind to fight ISIS.

Source:

[1]: http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/syria-war-refugee-crisis

[2]: http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/16/world/paris-attacks-syrian-refugees-backlash/

One thought on “#SyrianRefugees Editorial”

  1. This is one of the issues that’s weighed the most on me the last few months. Watching it unfold on social media has been interesting, to say the least. I think the social commentary available to share through twitter, particularly, has allowed for more discussion and for conviction about such things as griping about the refugees over a full plate on Thanksgiving.

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