T

he civil war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced over four million others since it started in March 2011.

Fellow Arab countries Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which share similar cultural and religious values, are not opening their borders. Therefore, the Syrians only have the option to seek safety in Europe.

Unfortunately for the Syrians, Europe is used to having a majority-white population with a Christian based political system. Hence, some European countries fear that millions of refugees coming from the Middle East will disrupt their social, cultural and political norms. This explains why certain countries, like Slovakia, want to set up steel walls and barbed wire and only want to accept Christian migrants.

This situation closely resembles the influx of Indochinese boatpeople from 1979 to 1996 as well as the most recent arrivals of refugees from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia to Indonesia. They all fled their countries because of political and social instability.

Although these people did not end up staying in Indonesia, they were trained to acclimatize and adjust to the main resettlement countries, something that European countries should learn from when trying to deal with their Syrian refugees.

By the end of the day, the Syrian refugees are someday going to be Europe'€™s future citizens.

The notorious camp that housed and trained refugees in Indonesia is called the Galang Refugee Camp. It is estimated that more than 170,000 refugees went through this camp. The Indonesian police made sure all refugees followed the rules, laws and regulations in place. Legal officers and caseworkers from other nations along with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were also present to make sure everything was fine.

Unlike some countries in Europe, Indonesia is tolerant and accepts people of all races, ethnicities, backgrounds and religions. Hence had the Indochinese refugees decided to permanently live in Indonesia, it would not have been a problem. Instead, these refugees provide plenty of economic benefits, which is exactly what the Syrian immigrants offer to Europe.

Europe has an aging population and the Syrians bring youth. These refugees are also willing and able to perform lower paying jobs and can boost the European economy. Europe'€™s decision to close its borders and reduce the number of Syrians or other immigrants will result in a lower income per capita and increase public spending and revenue from income tax.

Regardless of the economic benefits that refugees bring to Europe, Syrians will face discrimination for a significant amount of time.

Even the children of Syrian refugees who are born in Europe will face hate from people of European ethnicity. The prime reason being that Syrians have a completely different ideological mindset. Most Syrians believe in the Islamic religion, which is not the dominant faith in the European continent.

This issue can be detrimental to their future prospects, because if the Syrians are segregated, they will turn towards radicalism, further persisting with a form of path dependency and generating the spread of extremists and terrorist networks around the continent. The last thing that Europe and the rest of the world need is a stronger coalition fighting for radical Islam.

Thus the overarching goal is to shrink the socio-economic distance between immigrants and native Europeans. This was something that Indonesia took to heart when dealing with the arrival of Indochinese refugees. We realized that it was going to be difficult for the refugees to alter their way of life and accustom themselves with countries like the United States, Canada and Australia. As a result, it was crucial for us to teach them how to live life and blend in with Western culture.

After a decline in Indochinese refugees in the late 1990s, Indonesia has received a large amount of asylum-seekers from the early years of the 21st century until now. These refugees consist of people from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia.

As a country, we make sure that asylum seekers and refugees are safeguarded from refoulement; being forced to travel back to their own nation where their lives may be in danger.

There are three solutions that Indonesia provides: settling down in a third country, traveling back to their home nation once conflict is over or locally integrating in Indonesia.

In the near future, Europe will face more severe challenges with the United Nations forecasting that the world population will reach 10 billion by 2050.

Over the next few decades millions of people are likely to leave the regions of Africa, South Asia and Palestine, forced out by conflicts over resources, lack of opportunities and war triggered by climate change.

These people will more than likely see Europe as a prime destination, since it is a highly developed and powerful continent. But what if Europe does not step up to the plate to accept and help any of the refugees? What will happen then?