Lesson Plan December 15, 2015
News Bite 4: Is There a Link Between Refugees and Extremists?
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Questions for "Is There a Link Between Refugees and Extremists?"
- Discuss the following excerpt from the article. Do you agree with the link Su describes?
"My confusion came from a gap in understanding, similar to the gap between responses to Sousse in July and Paris now. I was looking at these subjects from an outside perspective, one disconnected from the region’s historical traumas and ongoing suffering. I saw closed borders, displacement camps, wars and killing, but only after reporting did I see the link between refugees and extremists: that deep injustice creates both."?
- Su writes: "A second link between refugees and extremism is that one can help us to combat the other. Fighting extremism means we must also find real ways to give hope to those on the crushed side of our world—and no one knows how to do that better than refugees."
In this context, what power do you have to fight extremism?
- Find a recent news article where someone argues that refugees are the cause of violent extremism, and compare their argument to the one Su makes here. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each argument? Which one do you agree with more?
"Is there a link between refugees and extremism?" Pulitzer Center grantee Alice Su writes. "I spent the last year completing two projects with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: one on protracted refugee crises in Jordan and Lebanon, the other on youth extremism in Jordan and Tunisia. Living in Amman, I was curious why these in- and outflows were happening at once: desperate people fleeing from nearby crises, willing to subsist on the margins rather than go back, living non-lives without a way to work or move forward, while young men with citizenship streamed toward Syria and Jordan for voluntary battle."
In this lesson, students will study this blog post by Su and discuss whether they think there is a link between the world's current refugee crises and violent extremism.
Students will read a piece by Pulitzer Center grantee Alice Su and discuss a contentious issue: refugees and extremism.
