The world has been watching as refugees flee from the Middle East. Some countries respond by putting up barriers at their borders, while others respond with open arms.
Who is right?
A country like Canada has a long history of allowing refugees and other immigrants into our country.
The result is that we have a vibrant culture and a thriving economy, especially when compared to most other countries in the world.
Hungary was once a thriving country with a multi-cultural heritage as well, but it has not welcomed diversity for the last 100 years. Policies during and after the Second World War were particularly ethnocentric, and the current government has made it clear that immigrants are not welcome.
The result is a population that is not growing, a stagnated economy and a country that faces a future of crisis due to an aging workforce.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been praised for allowing a large influx of refugees into her country.
Humanitarians agree this is the right thing to do. Economically it is also the prudent thing to do. Germany, like most Western countries, has an aging workforce and an extremely low birthrate.
Without immigration their economy cannot continue to thrive.
Yes, allowing refugees into the country is expensive in the short term, but the long-term benefits are extraordinary. It is true that immigrants often take lower paying jobs that the rest of the population does not want, but we need to remember that they are also consumers, entrepreneurs and tax payers. Immigrants also add to the ethnic diversity of a country, and the children of those immigrants will keep the country growing and vibrant.
One of the most horrific examples of ethnocentrism was that of the Nazi government's treatment of its Jewish citizens.
The rest of the world, we must keep in mind, welcomed few (if any) Jewish refugees at that time.
Looking back, we can see the foolishness of this decision.
Here we had an industrious and well educated group of people who would have brought prosperity anywhere they landed.
Imagine where the world would be now had we not given in to fear and believed the lies of racism.
Today the world faces a similar crisis.
Christians, in particular, are at risk in the Middle East.
Pope Francis has even referred to their plight as "a form of genocide." This persecution has been going on for many years.
My own grandparents left Syria for the same reason early in the 20th century.
The Christian population was then 20 per cent of the population, today it is at five per cent and dropping.
The extremism of ISIS and other radical groups has now also put moderate Muslims at risk.
The bottom line is that those fleeing are good people who will bring enormous benefits to every country where they land.
Allowing them to settle in our prosperous nations looks like the right thing to do from merely a humanitarian point of view, but it is the smart thing to do.
