Climate Refugees?
Really? Climate refugees? Normally, it takes fleeing regimes that impose economic hardship, religious turmoil or political unrest to qualify a foreigner for refugee status in the United States. Incidentally, the policy has proven in the past to be a fairly tough standard to meet.
Now, global obsession with the weather has lead to the U.S. to consider adding a new breed of expatriates: climate refugees. And, of course, recognizing the allegedly poor or worsening conditions surrounding these victims of policy-making in their home countries – involving carbon emissions and sea-level rise – many in the U.S. think the new test is okay.
Previously, “refugee” was defined under the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) as a person outside the country of his or her nationality, “who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution based on his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Under what Biden is now contemplating, however, the definition could include anyone. The amendment goes something like this: the (donor)… Read More