Book Review: How Europe is squandering opportunities to boost its economy with refugee workers

Updated 05 May 2017
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Book Review: How Europe is squandering opportunities to boost its economy with refugee workers

The world refugee crisis has displaced a record 65 million people from their homes, the most since the end of World War II. The majority of these uprooted people remain within their countries, but over 20 million have no other alternative but to flee due to fear of persecution.
Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System” by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier gives a sobering account of how the refugee crisis has affected Europe.
In 2015, the world experienced the gravity of the problem when refugees and migrants seeking better economic opportunities moved simultaneously from the poorer regions of the world to the richest. During that same year, more than 1 million asylum-seekers came to Europe. European governments are still struggling to find adequate solutions and until now, their response has been incoherent and unsatisfactory. Despite a series of high-level conferences organized by the UN, a consensus has still not been reached on a strategy for the future of the global refugee system. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) is both failing to provide protection to refugees and to find long-term solutions to their plight, the two main reasons for which it was founded.
Since its creation in 1950, the UNHCR has been, in fact, adapting to change. It was originally set up as a temporary organization with no funding and a staff of a few hundred people. Sixty-seven years later it has offices all over the world and an annual budget exceeding $5 billion. The scope of its mission is not only legal but also operational: engaged in the protection of refugees, stateless persons, internally displaced persons and victims of natural disasters. In the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in 2004, the UN secretary-general asked UNHCR to provide assistance in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. UNHCR responded that this was an “unprecedented” and exceptional move, outside its mandate. But soon the exception became the rule.
One of the main ideas of this book is that the events thats led to a refugee crisis in Europe are due to the adoption of policies that created avoidable problems. The Shengen treaty led to the creation of the Schengen Area comprising 26 European states in which internal borders have been abolished. As a result, any citizen can move across the borders of member countries. The authors highlight “the extraordinary disconnection between the will to implement the outcome and the will to make it workable. This vast area was created without either an agreement on common external immigration policies or the creation of a common external border police.”
The entire Schengen Area is an open space. With no police on the border between Italy and the neighboring Schengen countries such as France and Austria, the migrants can move freely from one country to another. But that does not entitle them to file for asylum, work or even gain the nationality. To survive migrants can only expect to find a below-minimum-wage-job or resort to criminality. The least regulated market in Europe is Britain. Unlike the rest of Europe, the United Kingdom has no national identity card and it is not part of Schengen. This explains the presence of a huge refugee camp near Calais, which has now been dismantled.
The Syrian refugee crisis was grossly mishandled. The displaced Syrian population fled mainly to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. International agencies failed to coordinate their efforts. The UNHCR reacted by providing food and shelter in camps but 85 percent of the refugees avoided the camps in Jordan; in Turkey, up to 90 percent of the refugees wanted the right to work. The World Bank classified these three countries as “upper-middle income” and as such they were not entitled to receive help.
The most important fact regarding refugees is that the majority remain in their region of origin or in neighboring countries. “There is a mismatch in terms of attention and resources. We focus on the 10 percent who reach the developed world but neglect the nearly 90 percent who stay in developing regions of the world,” wrote Betts and Collier.
The majority of the world’s refugees remain in neighboring countries. In other words, the countries with the least capacity end up hosting refugees and bear the greatest responsibility.
Lebanon is currently hosting over 1 million Syrian refugees who represent 25 percent of its entire population. Kenya and Uganda host together 1 million refugees, which is equivalent to the total number of asylum-seekers to enter all 28 of the EU’s member states. Pakistan, until Turkey took over, was the world’s biggest refugee-hosting country because of its neighbor, Afghanistan.
The Dadaab camp in Kenya was established in 1992 to host 90,000 refugees fleeing Somalia’s civil war. It is now 26 years old and shelters a population of nearly half a million refugees. The Za’atari camp in Jordan hosts 83,000 inhabitants and although it has a more vibrant market, superior basic services, it follows the same model.
“Those people arriving in Europe or North America are often extremely vulnerable and their lives matter, but so too do the lives of the nearly 90 percent left behind. Today, the world spends approximately $75 billion a year on the 10 percent of refugees who move to developed regions and only $5 billion a year on the 90 percent who remain in developing regions,” wrote the authors.
Refugees can contribute to the GDP of European countries, and that is where development funds are needed. Refugees have a fundamental right to expect a pathway to autonomy. And the best way to help them is to privilege their regions of origin because it makes it easier to go home.
When Manbij, a town of 100,000 people, in northern Syria, managed to get rid of Daesh, people immediately flocked in from Turkey back into Syria.
The Syrian refugee crisis, which has involved European countries, offers a chance to rethink a strategy and should first take into consideration the refugees’ skills, talents and aspirations then conceive of an approach that could enable a refugee to work and live an autonomous and dignified life. The idea is that a refugee is not just a humanitarian case but a development issue.
Uganda hosts over 500,000 refugees from Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea; it is the third-largest host country in Africa. Unlike Kenya and Ethiopia, its neighbors, Uganda has taken a radically different approach to refugees. It has given refugees the right to work and a significant degree of freedom of movement. It allows refugees to start businesses and seek employment. It also gives refugees plots of land to cultivate for both subsistence and commercial agriculture. Uganda is a unique success story that shows what refugees can achieve when they are given the proper means.
Despite more constraints, one can find a similar atmosphere of innovation and inventiveness among the Syrian refugee community in Jordan. In the Za’atari refugee camp, there is no work and all the economic activity is highly regulated. However, creativity is everywhere. The bustling main street is known as “Shams Elysees,” reminding us of the famous Champs Elysees in Paris, the most beautiful avenue in the world.
All refugee families are given a caravan to live in provided by the generosity of one of the members of the Gulf states. Many of these caravans are transformed into shops on the camp’s Shams Elysees or they are made into furniture. The creativity and the entrepreneurship so alive in the Za’atari refugee camp make us wonder why refugees are not allowed to work. Betts and Collier believe that refugees represent an opportunity to transition to manufacturing. The core of their idea is to create economic zones that would employ refugees. Setting up production in a haven country can be done when and if CEOs are determined to succeed. In Mexico, an American firm succeeded in setting up a production line in six weeks.
This book offers an in-depth coverage of the refugee crisis. Betts and Collier underline the necessity of creating safe havens in the countries that neighbor conflict and crisis because this is where most of the refugees are so they can easily go back and rebuild their countries. The authors also criticize the way camps are managed. The current humanitarian assistance model leads nowhere, it is out of touch with the contemporary world and refugees do not want to stay the authors argue. The authors suggest the creation of a new model that will provide autonomy, employment and dignity to refugees. There is also much hope that Antonio Guterres, the current UN secretary- general, who was former high commissioner for refugees, is in the best position to implement the necessary changes to the refugee system. Ultimately, the biggest funders: The United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and the European states are the ones who have the capacity to ask for meaningful change.
“Only in moments of crisis can changes to the international system be made, and so the scale of the challenge should not be discouraging but galvanizing. We hand over to you.”
Yes, indeed, each one of us should reflect on the obligations and rights that stem from our common humanity. Isn’t it our duty to support the basic human dignity of those whose lives and human rights are severely threatened?

life.style@arabnews.com


Prince and Princess of Wales attend Wimbledon final between Alcaraz and Sinner

Britain’s Prince William, Kate, Princess of Wales, center, and Princess Charlotte arrive to attend the men’s singles final match
Updated 13 July 2025
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Prince and Princess of Wales attend Wimbledon final between Alcaraz and Sinner

  • Kate is the patron of the All England Club and was scheduled to present the trophies after the match

LONDON: Kate, the Princess of Wales, returned to Wimbledon on Sunday along with her husband Prince William and their daughter Charlotte to watch the men’s final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Kate is the patron of the All England Club and was scheduled to present the trophies after the match.
On Saturday, she was the only member of her family in the Royal Box for the women’s final and gave champion Iga Swiatek her prize after a 6-0, 6-0 victory and offered consoling words to runner-up Amanda Anisimova.
On Sunday they were set to be joined by King Felipe VI of Spain, a number of former Wimbledon champions and a slew of Hollywood celebrities.
Actors Keira Knightley, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman and John Lithgow were all set to be seated in the Royal Box, as was London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Last year, while recovering from cancer, Kate did not attend the women’s final but was on hand for Alcaraz’s win against Novak Djokovic at the All England Club.
She has been gradually returning to public duties and recently welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron during a state visit to Britain.


Gisele Pelicot and Pharrell Williams get France’s top honor

Updated 13 July 2025
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Gisele Pelicot and Pharrell Williams get France’s top honor

  • Gisele Pelicot, who became a feminist icon by publicly testifying over the mass rapes she endured
  • Rapper-turned-fashion designer Pharrell Williams were among 589 people awarded France’s top civic honor on Sunday

PARIS: Gisele Pelicot, who became a feminist icon by publicly testifying over the mass rapes she endured, and rapper-turned-fashion designer Pharrell Williams were among 589 people awarded France’s top civic honor on Sunday.
Pelicot, 72, and Williams were both named knights of the Legion of Honour on a list announced ahead of France’s July 14 national day.
Pelicot earned international tributes for her courage in testifying at a trial in 2024 against her former husband, who drugged her and arranged for her to be raped by dozens of men over a decade.
She has since been named on lists of the world’s most influential people by international media and the case helped forced a change in France’s rape law.
But Pelicot has remained silent since the trial. Her lawyer says she is concentrating on writing a book giving her side of the mass rape story which is to be released in 2026.
Williams, 52, made his name as a rapper and singer but earned a second fortune as a music producer and after designing clothes and accessories for several brands. He has been Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director since 2023.
His recent Paris show attracted a host of international celebrities, including Jay Z and Beyonce, film directors Steve McQueen and Spike Lee and football and basketball stars.
Actor Lea Drucker, veteran singer Sylvie Vartan, writer Marc Levy and Auschwitz deportee Yvette Levy, 99, were also among the figures awarded the Legion of Honour along with a host of former ministers, academics and top legal names.


Hungary’s oldest library is fighting to save 100,000 books from a beetle infestation

Updated 13 July 2025
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Hungary’s oldest library is fighting to save 100,000 books from a beetle infestation

  • The 1,000-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey is a sprawling Benedictine monastery that is one of Hungary’s oldest centers of learning and a UNESCO World Heritage site

PANNONHALMA, Hungary: Tens of thousands of centuries-old books are being pulled from the shelves of a medieval abbey in Hungary in an effort to save them from a beetle infestation that could wipe out centuries of history.

The 1,000-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey is a sprawling Benedictine monastery that is one of Hungary’s oldest centers of learning and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Restoration workers are removing about 100,000 handbound books from their shelves and carefully placing them in crates, the start of a disinfection process that aims to kill the tiny beetles burrowed into them.

The drugstore beetle, also known as the bread beetle, is often found among dried foodstuffs like grains, flour and spices. But they also are attracted to the gelatin and starch-based adhesives found in books.

They have been found in a section of the library housing around a quarter of the abbey’s 400,000 volumes.

“This is an advanced insect infestation which has been detected in several parts of the library, so the entire collection is classified as infected and must be treated all at the same time,” said Zsófia Edit Hajjdu, the chief restorer on the project. “We’ve never encountered such a degree of infection before.”

Abbey houses historical treasures

The beetle invasion was first detected during a routine library cleaning. Employees noticed unusual layers of dust on the shelves and then saw that holes had been burrowed into some of the book spines. Upon opening the volumes, burrow holes could be seen in the paper where the beetles chewed through.

The abbey at Pannonhalma was founded in 996, four years before the establishment of the Hungarian Kingdom. Sitting upon a tall hill in northwestern Hungary, the abbey houses the country’s oldest collection of books, as well as many of its earliest and most important written records.

For over 1,000 years, the abbey has been among the most prominent religious and cultural sites in Hungary and all of Central Europe, surviving centuries of wars and foreign incursions such as the Ottoman invasion and occupation of Hungary in the 16th century.

Ilona Asvanyi, director of the Pannonhalma Archabbey library, said she is “humbled” by the historical and cultural treasures the collection holds whenever she enters.

“It is dizzying to think that there was a library here a thousand years ago, and that we are the keepers of the first book catalogue in Hungary,” she said.

Among the library’s most outstanding works are 19 codices, including a complete Bible from the 13th century. It also houses several hundred manuscripts predating the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century and tens of thousands of books from the 16th century.

While the oldest and rarest prints and books are stored separately and have not been infected, Asvanyi said any damage to the collection represents a blow to cultural, historical and religious heritage.

“When I see a book chewed up by a beetle or infected in any other way, I feel that no matter how many copies are published and how replaceable the book is, a piece of culture has been lost,” she said.

Books will spend weeks in an oxygen-free environment

To kill the beetles, the crates of books are being placed into tall, hermetically sealed plastic sacks from which all oxygen is removed. After six weeks in the pure nitrogen environment, the abbey hopes all the beetles will be destroyed.

Before being reshelved, each book will be individually inspected and vacuumed. Any book damaged by the pests will be set aside for later restoration work.

Climate change may have contributed

The abbey, which hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year, believes the effects of climate change played a role in spurring the beetle infestation as average temperatures rise rapidly in Hungary.

Hajjdu, the chief restorer, said higher temperatures have allowed the beetles to undergo several more development cycles annually than they could in cooler weather.

“Higher temperatures are favorable for the life of insects,” she said. “So far we’ve mostly dealt with mold damage in both depositories and in open collections. But now I think more and more insect infestations will appear due to global warming.”

The library’s director said life in a Benedictine abbey is governed by a set of rules in use for nearly 15 centuries, a code that obliges them to do everything possible to save its vast collection.

“It says in the Rule of Saint Benedict that all the property of the monastery should be considered as of the same value as the sacred vessel of the altar,” Asvanyi said. “I feel the responsibility of what this preservation and conservation really means.”


The biggest piece of Mars on Earth is going up for auction in New York

Updated 13 July 2025
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The biggest piece of Mars on Earth is going up for auction in New York

  • The natural history-themed sale on Wednesday features a 54-pound hunk of Mars estimated at $2 million to $4 million

NEW YORK: For sale: A 54-pound (25-kilogram) rock. Estimated auction price: $2 million to $4 million. Why so expensive? It’s the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.
Sotheby’s in New York will be auctioning what’s known as NWA 16788 on Wednesday as part of a natural history-themed sale that also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that’s more than 6 feet (2 meters) tall and nearly 11 feet (3 meters) long.
According to the auction house, the meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before traveling 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth, where it crashed into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023, Sotheby’s says.
The red, brown and gray hunk is about 70 percent larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7 percent of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby’s says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches (375 millimeters by 279 millimeters by 152 millimeters).
“This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,” Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in an interview. “So it’s more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest piece of Mars.”
It is also a rare find. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, Sotheby’s says.
Hatton said a small piece of the red planet remnant was removed and sent to a specialized lab that confirmed it is from Mars. It was compared with the distinct chemical composition of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976, she said.
The examination found that it is an “olivine-microgabbroic shergottite,” a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma. It has a course-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine, Sotheby’s says.
It also has a glassy surface, likely due to the high heat that burned it when it fell through Earth’s atmosphere, Hatton said. “So that was their first clue that this wasn’t just some big rock on the ground,” she said.
The meteorite previously was on exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. Sotheby’s did not disclose the owner.
It’s not clear exactly when the meteorite hit Earth, but testing shows it probably happened in recent years, Sotheby’s said.
The juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton was found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, at Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones. Specialists assembled nearly 140 fossil bones with some sculpted materials to recreate the skeleton and mounted it so it’s ready to exhibit, Sotheby’s says.
The skeleton is believed to be from the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, Sotheby’s says. It’s auction estimate is $4 million to $6 million.
Ceratosaurus dinosaurs were bipeds with short arms that appear similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex, but smaller. Ceratosaurus dinosaurs could grow up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, while the Tyrannosaurs rex could be 40 feet (12 meters) long.
The skeleton was acquired last year by Fossilogic, a Utah-based fossil preparation and mounting company.
Wednesday’s auction is part of Sotheby’s Geek Week 2025 and features 122 items, including other meteorites, fossils and gem-quality minerals.


French prisoner escapes in fellow inmate’s luggage

The 20-year-old prisoner escaped from Corbas prison, near Lyon, southeast France, on Friday, broadcaster BFMTV reported. (AFP)
Updated 13 July 2025
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French prisoner escapes in fellow inmate’s luggage

  • The inmate “took advantage of the liberation of his fellow inmate to hide himself in his luggage and get out,” the statement said

LYON: France’s prison service said Saturday it had launched an investigation after a man escaped by smuggling himself into his cellmate’s bag as he left jail, having served his sentence.
The 20-year-old prisoner escaped from Corbas prison, near Lyon, southeast France, on Friday, broadcaster BFMTV reported.
The inmate was serving several sentences, the prison service said in a statement to AFP.
He “took advantage of the liberation of his fellow inmate to hide himself in his luggage and get out,” the statement said.
The escaped prisoner was also under investigation in a case linked to organized crime, a source close to the affair told AFP.
An internal investigation is underway and Lyon prosecutors had opened their own investigations, the prison service added.