Cost Of Providing Refugee

Essay: What are the acceptable costs of providing refuge?

Providing refuge to people fleeing away from political persecution is not an easy decision to make for a State because it can sometimesbe very costly. Those costs can be of different kind, and telling which ones are acceptable and which ones are not is extremely delicate. One way to evaluate if providing refuge is worth the costs ittriggers is resorting to the marginal analysis. It is beneficial to host refugees as long as the costs of this decision do not worsen the overall situation.
These costs can be diplomatic: welcoming apart of the population from another country might impact the diplomatic relations between the two countries. An authoritarian government that sees its population fleeing to another country may notappreciate the fact that this country set a refugee program to welcome them. He might fear, for instance, that it is a strategy to harm him. This cost is acceptable as long as the change in diplomaticrelations does not lead to something worse, like a general war that would eventually cost more lives that it saves.
The costs can also be economic: developing a refugee program costs money, thegovernment has to find or create organizations to take care of refugees, allow a certain amount of resources to them etc.
But one cost that is unacceptable regardless of the marginal analysis is the humancost resulting from the way the refugees are received in the host country. If he does provide refuge, the government or the entity dealing with this program must be sure that it will improve thesituation of the refugees, or at least not worsen it. Sometimes, the way the refugee population is treated by enforcement officials, citizens of the host country and even UN peacekeepers consists inviolation of human rights that is purely and simply unacceptable. Refugees try to escape a human violation and fleeing from their country is already terribly costly, so being also victims of human...