HOW SHOULD DEVELOPED NATIONS RESPOND TO THE GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS

Be it resolved, give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free...

The world is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. Over 300,000 dead in Syria. One and a half million injured or disabled. Four and a half million people fleeing the country. And Syria is just one of a growing number of failed or failing states in the Middle East and North Africa. How should developed nations respond to human suffering on this mass scale? Do the prosperous societies of the West have a moral imperative to assist as many refugees as they reasonably and responsibly can? Or, is this a time for vigilance and restraint in the face of a wave of mass migration that risks upending the tolerance and openness of the West?

This debate took place on April 1st, 2016 in Toronto:
http://www.munkdebates.com/