CON My partner and I negate today’s resolution,
Resolved: In response to the current crisis, a government should prioritize the humanitarian needs of refugees over its national interests.
If we can prove that a government should prioritize its national interests over the humanitarian needs of refugees in response to the current crisis or that the two should be prioritized equally, then we have won the case.
In order to establish context for this round, we present the following definitions:
The current crisis refers to the fact that there are over fifteen million refugees in the world, which, according to Eurostat, mostly come the Middle East and North Africa, including countries like Syria, Kosovo, and Afghanistan[A-11]. A government is, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an organization by which a political unit exercises authority [2]. According to John Locke, it exists by the consent of the people in order to protect the rights of the people and promote the public good.[1] Brookings Institution: The meaning of national interest is what a nation feels to be necessary to its security and well being National interest reflects the general and continuing ends for which a nation acts.(10)
Contention 1: The primary purpose of a government is to protect the interests of its citizens, not the interests of refugees.
As stated in our definition of a government, a government exists only in the interests of the people and works to promote the protect their rights and promote the public good. Letting refugees into a nation would harm the wellbeing of the citizens, as we will explain in our later contentions. Thus, the government would not be fulfilling its duty to promote the interests of its citizens and protect the rights of the citizens.
According to Dr. István Stumpf on the Heritage Foundation[4], “America’s founding document . . . serves as a model for other nations.” This means that the US Constitution should be used as the standard of today’s debate. As described in the United States Constitution,the purpose of a government is to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to [the citizens] and [their] Posterity. [x]” This passage does not mention an obligation to people the government is not governing; instead, the government’s primary purpose is to create and enforce laws within the country it governs, protect the citizens of that country, and provide healthcare, infrastructure, and other programs that benefit the welfare of a nation. While nations who have the resources to do so may choose to aid Syrian refugees as well, they should first prioritize their national interests, which is the stated purpose of a government, and prioritize the needs of refugees secondly.
Contention 2: Governments that choose to prioritize refugees will be financially burdened to a point that is unsustainable for the management of their country. According to BBC News, the Home Office has confirmed that each adult Syrian refugee will cost about 23 thousand euros, or 25 thousand dollars, per year. According to CNN, there are hundreds of thousands of refugees who wish for asylum in Europe, and this is placing a strain on European resources. Germany, which expects to take in 800 thousand refugees--just a fraction of the total, which is over fifteen million--says that it will spend 6.7 billion dollars. Austria, which received 16 thousand refugees in just two days, says that it is unable to keep up with the rate of refugee arrival. Furthermore, according to the Atlantic Council, Jordan has always had a lack of water, but last year, after 600,000 Syrian refugees arrived, they placed profound new pressures on the country’s dwindling water resources. This is causing a major shortage of supplies. Clearly, the refugee crisis has created a major financial burden on many countries by threatening the stability and development of countries that already lack resources. This will significantly decrease the amount of resources available to citizens, which, as we have already established, should be the primary focus of any government.
Contention 3: Human security dangers
As stated by New York Times, “On Saturday, French officials revealed what could prove to be a turning point in the debate over migration: One of the attackers was carrying a Syrian passport and, perhaps more ominously, may have entered Europe along the migrant trail.”(8) Since it has now become a strategy for terrorists to smuggle into countries as refugees, this creates a high security risk for many citizens whose nations are allowing refugees in. Regarding the Paris attacks, “129 people killed in Paris, 352 were injured, at least 99 seriously” according to CNN. Letting in syrian refugees would only further stimulate the risk of the innocent lives of hundreds of people all over the world.According to International Business Times, “Opportunistic smugglers have been helping small groups of ISIS fighters travel from southern Turkey into Europe for months, hidden in cargo ships filled with hundreds of refugees, according to an ISIS operative and several smugglers quoted by BuzzFeed in January. (6)The ISIS operative claimed some 4,000 fighters were already waiting in Europe, intent on fulfilling ISIS's repeated threats to stage attacks around the globe.(9)Just the year before, the White House stated in August 2013 that AQAP demonstrates “an interest in and a willingness to attempt serious attacks on the United States, our allies, and our people.”(8) Domestically, concerns of homegrown terrorism were reinforced by the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.”Thus, by allowing refugees into nations, nations are “sowing the seeds of terrorism in [their] own country”, creating a huge risk for the citizens all over the world.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/#Tol http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/government http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/national%20interest http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/2013/05/model-resource-or-outlier-what-effect-has-the-us-constitution-had-on-the-recently-adopted-constitutions-of-other-nations http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/08/world/refugee-obligation/ http://www.ibtimes.com/refugee-crisis-isis-fighters-europe-islamic-state-extremists-exploit-refugee-flow-2085787 http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/world/europe/attackers-possible-link-to-migrant-trail-heightens-security-fears.html?_r=0 http://www.cfr.org/global/global-conflict-tracker/p32137#!/?marker=1 http://www.christiantoday.com/article/just.wait.isis.agent.bares.thousands.of.terrorists.smuggled.into.europe.together.with.refugees.and.now.ready.to.strike/70505.htm http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/international-politics/national-interest-meaning-components-and-methods/48487/