The Refugee Question

Like many topics the discussion of the Syrian refugee crisis discussion has gained a certain political aura as well as a good share of emotionalism. Now emotions are important, but they are not the best when used as an argument for or against something. I want to try to build a framework here to explore the topic. To try to deescalate the emotional aspect of the subject I am going to use an imaginary scenario.

Scenario:

Over the past few years Colorstan has been having a civil war between the mauve led government and the rebel purples. Many in Colorstan have gotten tired of the incessant gum ball throwing and are looking for somewhere they can live in peace.

Should we allow refugees from Colorstan and if we allow some how many?

Proponents of immigration say that our very identity as Americans mandates that we open our doors for the Colorstani refugees. That they are simply seeking to get away from the annoying and persistent gum ball barrages.

Opponents of the immigration say that if we allow the Colorstanis to come some of them will throw gum balls and annoy people here. They are also concerned that the immigrants love of purple will clash too much with the American love of blue.

There are more issues of course, but these are the ones I have heard the most and are a good example.

Framework:

First we need to understand that everything is an issue of degree.

1.       We are a country of refugees. We have accepted people from all over the world and all kinds of backgrounds. However, most people do not think we should allow anyone who wants to come come. There must be some kind of evaluation method. Enacting some kind of restrictions does not inherently go against our "Americanness".
2.       In any group of people there is some percentage who want to throw gum balls at people. No matter the screening method a percentage of gum ball throwers will get through.
3.       Anyone moving from one culture to another is going to have some adjustments to deal with. So it just depends on the degree.

So the salient questions and resulting conclusions are as follows:

1.       What percentage of Colorstanis who make it through the screening process are gum ball throwers?
2.       How many gum ball throwing incidents can happen a year before it is considered to be unacceptable?

Answering these questions, while not at all simple, will give us a number of immigrants we can accept per year without being overly annoyed by gum balls (assuming the gum ball throwers act in their first year here and we catch them when they do it).

(allowable gum ball events per year)/(percentage of gum ball throwers) = (immigrants per year)

This speaks to the immediate annoyance level that everyone will experience. In this case it is the responsibility of professionals to try to come up with rough numbers for the infiltration risk. It is the role of the public and their representatives to decide what kind of gum ball throwing frequency they are ok with.

3.       How big of a difference is there between blue and purple?
4.       What affects will that difference produce?

While it is difficult to predict the future we can observe the past and study examples of the mixing of blue and purple in various concentrations in the past. How was it done? How did it go?

Analysis:

While answering the questions is far from a purely analytical process it moves the conversation in a much more concrete and tangible direction and away from pure emotion and rhetoric.

We must make well thought out and reasoned decisions on topics like this. It is the government's responsibility to keep us safe from foreign threats. However, it is also important that we show compassion to those who are hurting around us. That is why the only right path is to have an informed discussion that allows us to weigh the risks against the benefits.

Coming back to reality I will pose a final question.

How many terrorist attacks here in the US are you willing to allow to take Syrian refugees?

Edit: After reading the question again I realize it sounds like I am against taking refugees. I'm not, but the chance of an attack is going to be greater than zero if we take some. We just have to weigh the risk.