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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Flüchtlinge Willkommen in Austria takes a positive approach to Europe's refugee crisis

Vienna's Refugees Welcome program is a charitable model for others.

Austria, like several other European counties, is currently in the midst of an asylum-housing crisis. It has already seen the third-largest increase in the number of refugees in the European Union within the first 
quarter of 2015.

Reception centers are overflowing, some hostels for asylum seekers are poorly run and conditions are dismal and often isolated, making societal integration even more challenging.

But nine months ago, Flüchtlinge Willkommen, or Refugees Welcome, was founded in Germany to coordinates living arrangements for refugees in shared flats versus mass 
accommodation.

More than 70 asylum seekers have been placed in flat-shares in Germany and Austria, where it was introduced this year, and that number is growing. It’s like Airbnb, but for a cause.

People can also sign up to be a refugee buddy and help a refugee in their area with accommodations and any issues they may have. Refugees may then benefit from a support system and hopefully even a friend.

The Magdas Hotel, also in Vienna, opened this year and employs a staff of mostly refugees. By giving refugees a job, they can become financially independent and more easily integrate 
into society.

Realistically speaking, asylum seekers are often treated rather poorly no matter where they end up. The Rohingya refugees in Myanmar are an extreme and unfortunate example.

Authorities of host countries often carry “not in my backyard” attitudes, and residents aren’t exactly receiving them with open 
arms either.

Though immigration is not without its negative aspects, by helping immigrants residents are only contributing to the betterment of their country. Instead of treating immigrants like a problem we just want to disappear, we could implement our own kind of Refugees Welcome organizations in the United States too.

In 2013, the U.S. immigrant population made up 13 percent of the U.S. population. It’s safe to say they’re not going anywhere.

A similar strategy could even be implemented for the homeless population. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the U.S. — they definitely aren’t going anywhere either.

However, as featured on the “Daily Show,” Utah’s Homeless Task Force saw a reduction of its chronic homeless population by 72 percent in Salt Lake City since 2005 by giving the homeless, well, homes.

By first giving shelter to people in need, other issues like unemployment and healthcare could then be addressed properly. This concept almost mirrors Refugees Welcome. It allows refugees to settle down, find work and become independent more efficiently.

Public opinion of the homeless, asylum-seekers, immigrants and the poor in general is universally unfavorable. They are seen as a burden to society taking 
up space.

Not only is this thinking outright wrong, it’s damaging toward efforts to combat such issues in the first place.

Instead of spending $20,000 on emergency care and jail time for the homeless, initiatives like the one in Utah would cost between $10,000 to $12,000.

More initiatives like Refugees Welcome and Utah’s homelessness solution could be implemented on a broader spectrum. Refugees Welcome could expand to even more countries in Europe and maybe even reach other continents too.

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