The current situation of refugees shows the exploitative and ruthless impact of

capitalism in a society who easily connects in the virtual level but fails to do it
humanely. It is easily noticed that the humanitarian aspect is often overpowered by
the economical when media outlets approach the subject. As images of destroyed
cities and wounded civilians strike us as a sad but distant reality, we feel better just by
posting supporting messages like #prayforsyria on social media. And even when
refugees manage to land in a country where war is not a life-threatening issue, besides
having to rebuild their lives, they must cope with xenophobia.
To begin with, I perceive the role played by the media in portraying refugee-related
news is as unhelpful and biased. Journalistic pieces associating the arrival of refugees
with the prospect of unemployment, economic crisis and terrorism (especially among
Islamic population) are more than common. In fact, a research conducted by
professors Jens Wolling and Dorothee Arlt 1 concluded that “the negative attitudes
have a much stronger effect than the positive ones. The fact that people perceive
refugees as a threat has a strong impact on the perception of hostility (…) in the media,
while variance with respect to the presumed benefits has a considerably lower effect ”.
Secondly, I believe the actions most people take when confronted with the violent
reality of refugees are scarce and empty. Empathy is a fashionable word, but a rare
attitude. We got too used to seeing countries at war through our televisions and
smartphone screens and do not perceive that problem as ours. Even the commotion
around the image of Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old refugee whose dead body was found
in a Turkish shore, did not last long or result in effective change regarding the problem.
Furthermore, creating a hashtag asking for prayers online seems much easier than
actually doing something.
Finally, when some of the 22.5 million people who were refugees at end of 2016
-according to the UN Refugee Agency2 - managed to leave their homelands, the huge
effort of rebuilding their lives came with extra obstacles. Far-right politicians like Italy’s
new interior minister Matteo Salvini and the US president Donald Trump have taken
xenophobic and prejudiced measures to keep refugees away from their first-world
lands such as prohibiting a boat filled with African refugees from docking at Italian
ports3 or banning people from specific nationalities (mostly Muslim and all third-world
countries) from entering the US.
In conclusion, I believe the refugee situation could be better dealt with if we looked to
those people like valuable human assets to our communities. They are doctors, chefs,
teachers and musicians. Skilled people, eager to live with dignity and proud of their
1
Global Media Journal, German edition, Vol. 6, No.1, Spring/Summer 2016
Wolling, Jens / Arlt, Dorothee: The refugees: threatening or beneficial?. Exploring the effects of positive
and negative attitudes and communication on hostile media perceptions. 2016.

2
http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/5943e8a34/global-trends-forced-displacement-2016.html
3
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italy-matteo-salvini-immigration-rescue-shut-
port-league-malta-refugee-migrant-a8392571.html
heritage. Using the information we have access to for taking concrete actions – such as
donating resources to organizations like The White Helmets in Syria or even getting to
know how to help Venezuelans and Haitians, who seek refuge in our own country – is,
in my opinion, good ways to handle the problem.