WEBVTT

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There are times when I feel
really quite ashamed

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to be a European.

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In the last year,

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more than a million people
arrived in Europe in need of our help,

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and our response,
frankly, has been pathetic.

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There are just so many contradictions.

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We mourn the tragic death

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of two-year-old Alan Kurdi,

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and yet, since then,
more than 200 children

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have subsequently drowned
in the Mediterranean.

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We have international treaties

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that recognize that refugees
are a shared responsibility,

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and yet we accept that tiny Lebanon

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hosts more Syrians
than the whole of Europe combined.

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We lament the existence
of human smugglers,

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and yet we make that the only viable route

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to seek asylum in Europe.

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We have labor shortages,

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and yet we exclude people who fit
our economic and demographic needs

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from coming to Europe.

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We proclaim our liberal values
in opposition to fundamentalist Islam,

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and yet --

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we have repressive policies

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that detain child asylum seekers,

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that separate children
from their families,

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and that seize property from refugees.

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What are we doing?

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How has the situation come to this,

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that we've adopted such an inhumane
response to a humanitarian crisis?

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I don't believe
it's because people don't care,

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or at least I don't want to believe
it's because people don't care.

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I believe it's because
our politicians lack a vision,

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a vision for how to adapt
an international refugee system

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created over 50 years ago

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for a changing and globalized world.

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And so what I want to do
is take a step back

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and ask two really fundamental questions,

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the two questions we all need to ask.

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First, why is the current
system not working?

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And second, what can we do to fix it?

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So the modern refugee regime

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was created in the aftermath
of the Second World War by these guys.

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Its basic aim is to ensure

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that when a state fails,
or worse, turns against its own people,

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people have somewhere to go,

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to live in safety and dignity
until they can go home.

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It was created precisely for situations
like the situation we see in Syria today.

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Through an international convention
signed by 147 governments,

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the 1951 Convention
on the Status of Refugees,

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and an international organization, UNHCR,

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states committed to reciprocally
admit people onto their territory

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who flee conflict and persecution.

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But today, that system is failing.

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In theory, refugees
have a right to seek asylum.

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In practice, our immigration policies
block the path to safety.

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In theory, refugees have a right
to a pathway to integration,

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or return to the country
they've come from.

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But in practice, they get stuck
in almost indefinite limbo.

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In theory, refugees
are a shared global responsibility.

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In practice, geography means
that countries proximate the conflict

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take the overwhelming majority
of the world's refugees.

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The system isn't broken
because the rules are wrong.

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It's that we're not applying them
adequately to a changing world,

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and that's what we need to reconsider.

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So I want to explain to you a little bit
about how the current system works.

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How does the refugee regime actually work?

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But not from a top-down
institutional perspective,

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rather from the perspective of a refugee.

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So imagine a Syrian woman.

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Let's call her Amira.

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And Amira to me represents
many of the people I've met in the region.

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Amira, like around 25 percent
of the world's refugees,

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is a woman with children,

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and she can't go home
because she comes from this city

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that you see before you, Homs,

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a once beautiful and historic city

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now under rubble.

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And so Amira can't go back there.

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But Amira also has no hope
of resettlement to a third country,

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because that's a lottery ticket

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only available to less than one percent
of the world's refugees.

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So Amira and her family

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face an almost impossible choice.

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They have three basic options.

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The first option is that Amira
can take her family to a camp.

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In the camp, she might get assistance,

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but there are very few prospects
for Amira and her family.

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Camps are in bleak, arid locations,

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often in the desert.

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In the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan,

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you can hear the shells
across the border in Syria at nighttime.

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There's restricted economic activity.

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Education is often of poor quality.

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And around the world,

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some 80 percent of refugees
who are in camps

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have to stay for at least five years.

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It's a miserable existence,

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and that's probably why, in reality,

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only nine percent of Syrians
choose that option.

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Alternatively, Amira can head
to an urban area

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in a neighboring country,
like Amman or Beirut.

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That's an option that about 75 percent
of Syrian refugees have taken.

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But there, there's
great difficulty as well.

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Refugees in such urban areas
don't usually have the right to work.

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They don't usually get
significant access to assistance.

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And so when Amira and her family
have used up their basic savings,

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they're left with very little
and likely to face urban destitution.

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So there's a third alternative,

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and it's one that increasing
numbers of Syrians are taking.

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Amira can seek some hope for her family

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by risking their lives
on a dangerous and perilous journey

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to another country,

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and it's that which we're seeing
in Europe today.

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Around the world, we present refugees
with an almost impossible choice

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between three options:

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encampment, urban destitution
and dangerous journeys.

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For refugees, that choice is
the global refugee regime today.

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But I think it's a false choice.

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I think we can reconsider that choice.

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The reason why we limit those options

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is because we think

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that those are the only options
that are available to refugees,

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and they're not.

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Politicians frame the issue
as a zero-sum issue,

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that if we benefit refugees,
we're imposing costs on citizens.

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We tend to have a collective assumption

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that refugees are an inevitable cost
or burden to society.

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But they don't have to.
They can contribute.

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So what I want to argue

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is there are ways in which we can
expand that choice set

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and still benefit everyone else:

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the host states and communities,

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our societies and refugees themselves.

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And I want to suggest four ways

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we can transform the paradigm
of how we think about refugees.

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All four ways have one thing in common:

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they're all ways in which we take
the opportunities of globalization,

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mobility and markets,

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and update the way we think
about the refugee issue.

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The first one I want to think about

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is the idea of enabling environments,

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and it starts from
a very basic recognition

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that refugees are human beings
like everyone else,

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but they're just
in extraordinary circumstances.

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Together with my colleagues in Oxford,

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we've embarked on
a research project in Uganda

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looking at the economic lives of refugees.

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We chose Uganda not because
it's representative of all host countries.

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It's not. It's exceptional.

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Unlike most host countries
around the world,

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what Uganda has done

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is give refugees economic opportunity.

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It gives them the right to work.
It gives them freedom of movement.

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And the results of that are extraordinary

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both for refugees and the host community.

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In the capital city, Kampala,

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we found that 21 percent of refugees
own a business that employs other people,

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and 40 percent of those employees

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are nationals of the host country.

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In other words, refugees are making jobs

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for citizens of the host country.

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Even in the camps,
we found extraordinary examples

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of vibrant, flourishing
and entrepreneurial businesses.

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For example, in a settlement
called Nakivale,

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we found examples of Congolese refugees

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running digital music exchange businesses.

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We found a Rwandan
who runs a business that's available

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to allow the youth to play computer games

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on recycled games consoles
and recycled televisions.

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Against the odds of extreme constraint,

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refugees are innovating,

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and the gentleman you see before you
is a Congolese guy called Demou-Kay.

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Demou-Kay arrived
in the settlement with very little,

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but he wanted to be a filmmaker.

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So with friends and colleagues,
he started a community radio station,

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he rented a video camera,

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and he's now making films.

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He made two documentary films

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with and for our team,

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and he's making a successful business
out of very little.

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It's those kinds of examples

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that should guide
our response to refugees.

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Rather than seeing refugees

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as inevitably dependent
upon humanitarian assistance,

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we need to provide them
with opportunities for human flourishing.

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Yes, clothes, blankets, shelter, food

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are all important in the emergency phase,

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but we need to also look beyond that.

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We need to provide opportunities
to connectivity, electricity,

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education, the right to work,

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access to capital and banking.

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All the ways in which we take for granted

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that we are plugged in
to the global economy

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can and should apply to refugees.

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The second idea I want to discuss
is economic zones.

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Unfortunately, not every
host country in the world

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takes the approach Uganda has taken.

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Most host countries don't open up
their economies to refugees

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in the same way.

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But there are still pragmatic
alternative options that we can use.

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Last April, I traveled to Jordan
with my colleague,

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the development economist Paul Collier,

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and we brainstormed an idea
while we were there

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with the international community
and the government,

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an idea to bring jobs to Syrians

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while supporting Jordan's
national development strategy.

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The idea is for an economic zone,

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one in which we could potentially
integrate the employment of refugees

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alongside the employment
of Jordanian host nationals.

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And just 15 minutes away
from the Zaatari refugee camp,

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home to 83,000 refugees,

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is an existing economic zone

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called the King Hussein
Bin Talal Development Area.

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The government has spent
over a hundred million dollars

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connecting it to the electricity grid,
connecting it to the road network,

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but it lacked two things:

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access to labor and inward investment.

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So what if refugees
were able to work there

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rather than being stuck in camps,

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able to support their families and develop
skills through vocational training

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before they go back to Syria?

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We recognized that
that could benefit Jordan,

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whose development strategy
requires it to make the leap

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as a middle income country
to manufacturing.

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It could benefit refugees,
but it could also contribute

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to the postconflict
reconstruction of Syria

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by recognizing that we need
to incubate refugees

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as the best source
of eventually rebuilding Syria.

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We published the idea
in the journal Foreign Affairs.

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King Abdullah has picked up on the idea.

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It was announced at the London
Syria Conference two weeks ago,

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and a pilot will begin in the summer.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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The third idea that I want to put to you

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is preference matching
between states and refugees

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to lead to the kinds of happy outcomes
you see here in the selfie

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featuring Angela Merkel
and a Syrian refugee.

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What we rarely do is ask refugees
what they want, where they want to go,

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but I'd argue we can do that

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and still make everyone better off.

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The economist Alvin Roth has developed
the idea of matching markets,

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ways in which the preference ranking
of the parties shapes an eventual match.

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My colleagues Will Jones
and Alex Teytelboym

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have explored ways in which that idea
could be applied to refugees,

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to ask refugees to rank
their preferred destinations,

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but also allow states to rank
the types of refugees they want

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on skills criteria or language criteria

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and allow those to match.

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Now, of course
you'd need to build in quotas

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on things like diversity
and vulnerability,

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but it's a way of increasing
the possibilities of matching.

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The matching idea
has been successfully used

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to match, for instance,
students with university places,

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to match kidney donors with patients,

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and it underlies the kind of algorithms
that exist on dating websites.

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So why not apply that
to give refugees greater choice?

NOTE Paragraph

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It could also be used
at the national level,

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where one of the great challenges we face

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is to persuade local communities
to accept refugees.

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And at the moment,
in my country, for instance,

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we often send engineers to rural areas
and farmers to the cities,

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which makes no sense at all.

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So matching markets offer a potential way
to bring those preferences together

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and listen to the needs and demands
of the populations that host

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and the refugees themselves.

NOTE Paragraph

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The fourth idea I want to put to you
is of humanitarian visas.

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Much of the tragedy and chaos
we've seen in Europe

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was entirely avoidable.

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It stems from a fundamental contradiction
in Europe's asylum policy,

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which is the following:

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that in order to seek asylum in Europe,

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you have to arrive spontaneously
by embarking on those dangerous journeys

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that I described.

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But why should those journeys be necessary
in an era of the budget airline

00:14:40.280 --> 00:14:42.696
and modern consular capabilities?

00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:45.056
They're completely unnecessary journeys,

00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:48.856
and last year, they led to the deaths
of over 3,000 people

00:14:48.880 --> 00:14:52.360
on Europe's borders
and within European territory.

00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:54.976
If refugees were simply allowed

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:57.776
to travel directly
and seek asylum in Europe,

00:14:57.800 --> 00:14:59.096
we would avoid that,

00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:00.656
and there's a way of doing that

00:15:00.680 --> 00:15:02.976
through something
called a humanitarian visa,

00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.536
that allows people
to collect a visa at an embassy

00:15:06.560 --> 00:15:08.696
or a consulate in a neighboring country

00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:10.616
and then simply pay their own way

00:15:10.640 --> 00:15:13.200
through a ferry or a flight to Europe.

00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:15.976
It costs around a thousand euros

00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.416
to take a smuggler
from Turkey to the Greek islands.

00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:24.896
It costs 200 euros to take a budget
airline from Bodrum to Frankfurt.

00:15:24.920 --> 00:15:28.696
If we allowed refugees to do that,
it would have major advantages.

00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:30.000
It would save lives,

00:15:30.760 --> 00:15:34.696
it would undercut
the entire market for smugglers,

00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:38.056
and it would remove the chaos
we see from Europe's front line

00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:40.136
in areas like the Greek islands.

00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:44.400
It's politics that prevents us doing that
rather than a rational solution.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:47.216
And this is an idea that has been applied.

00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.896
Brazil has adopted a pioneering approach

00:15:49.920 --> 00:15:54.216
where over 2,000 Syrians
have been able to get humanitarian visas,

00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:58.616
enter Brazil, and claim refugee status
on arrival in Brazil.

00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:01.536
And in that scheme,
every Syrian who has gone through it

00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:05.520
has received refugee status
and been recognized as a genuine refugee.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:06.160 --> 00:16:08.400
There is a historical precedent
for it as well.

00:16:08.920 --> 00:16:12.256
Between 1922 and 1942,

00:16:12.280 --> 00:16:16.056
these Nansen passports
were used as travel documents

00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:21.616
to allow 450,000 Assyrians,
Turks and Chechens

00:16:21.640 --> 00:16:23.136
to travel across Europe

00:16:23.160 --> 00:16:25.920
and claim refugee status
elsewhere in Europe.

00:16:26.520 --> 00:16:29.256
And the Nansen
International Refugee Office

00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:31.136
received the Nobel Peace Prize

00:16:31.160 --> 00:16:34.120
in recognition of this
being a viable strategy.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:38.216
So all four of these ideas
that I've presented you

00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.560
are ways in which we can expand
Amira's choice set.

00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:45.176
They're ways in which we can have
greater choice for refugees

00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:49.016
beyond those basic,
impossible three options

00:16:49.040 --> 00:16:50.256
I explained to you

00:16:50.280 --> 00:16:52.360
and still leave others better off.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:56.336
In conclusion,
we really need a new vision,

00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:59.136
a vision that enlarges
the choices of refugees

00:16:59.160 --> 00:17:01.696
but recognizes that they
don't have to be a burden.

00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:05.175
There's nothing inevitable
about refugees being a cost.

00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:08.455
Yes, they are a humanitarian
responsibility,

00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:12.096
but they're human beings
with skills, talents, aspirations,

00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:14.800
with the ability to make
contributions -- if we let them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:16.520 --> 00:17:17.760
In the new world,

00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:20.576
migration is not going to go away.

00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:23.576
What we've seen in Europe
will be with us for many years.

00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:25.415
People will continue to travel,

00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:27.296
they'll continue to be displaced,

00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:30.816
and we need to find rational,
realistic ways of managing this --

00:17:30.840 --> 00:17:33.856
not based on the old logics
of humanitarian assistance,

00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:35.976
not based on logics of charity,

00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:37.616
but building on the opportunities

00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:41.016
offered by globalization,
markets and mobility.

00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:44.456
I'd urge you all to wake up
and urge our politicians

00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:46.336
to wake up to this challenge.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:46.360 --> 00:17:47.616
Thank you very much.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:56.524
(Applause)