When it comes to refugee issues, most people first think of Europe, especially Germany. Under Merkel's leadership, Germany has received more than two million Syrian refugees, and has won countless praises around the world. However, praise cannot be used as a meal after all, and those refugees really want to eat. Not only have to eat, but also work, otherwise it will bring chaos, so this has also caused concern among some people. The optimistic people see the labor gap being filled, and the pessimistic people feel the quiet changes in the racial and religious structure. , as for where Germany will eventually go, no one is sure.
Of course, it’s not just the Germans who are worried. The right wing across Europe seems to be on the rise. They are afraid that their country will fall into the abyss of doom. The label "fertility machine" is a thief of social welfare and a maker of instability.
However, if you want to say that Germany is the country that accepts the most refugees in the world, some countries will definitely not be convinced, such as Jordan and Lebanon. They have taken in higher numbers of refugees and have been affected more severely. It's just that they are located in the Middle East, the country itself is not very developed, the right to speak is too small, and it receives less attention. After all, most of the news is about refugees destined for Europe dying in the Mediterranean, ignoring the whereabouts of another wave of refugees. Jordan and Lebanon have made a huge contribution to the reception of refugees (at least in terms of number), but they have not gained the same halo as Germany. It is indeed a bit embarrassing to think about it.
I used to know nothing about Lebanon other than the name. It wasn't until I saw the two excellent films "Shame" and "Why Home" that I got the urge to learn about this country, because both of these films discussed the refugee issue in this country. So I specifically checked some information on the Internet, hoping to clarify the ins and outs of the problem.
Below, I will combine the plot in "Why Home" to analyze how the refugee problem profoundly affects the ordinary people of this country.
Let's start with a plot that I'm very impressed with.
The little boy Zane wanted to smuggle to Germany. The traffickers asked him to take out five hundred dollars and a document to prove his identity. He ran home and found nothing. At this time, his father told him angrily that nothing could ever be found. prove their existence. At that time I had a lot of questions, where did they come from? Why live in such a small and cramped space? What caused their poverty? Why are their identities not recognized? With these questions, I searched the Internet for information, and finally came up with a possible answer. They should be descendants of refugees from Palestine.
Everything has to start with Lebanon's independence.
Before independence, Lebanon was a province of the Ottoman Empire and was colonized by France for a period of time, where Islamic and European cultures merged. After independence, Lebanon is a small country with a population of more than four million. Sixty percent of them believe in Christian Maronites, and most of the rest believe in Islamic Shiites. In addition, there are more than ten officially recognized people. religious denomination. There is no oil exploration in Lebanon, but due to its openness and tolerance, it still attracts many Western investors. Therefore, after independence, the economy is developed and the country is stable. However, such stability is destined to be only temporary. Its complex religious sects and special geographical location determine that it is a powder keg that may erupt at any time. Lebanon is located on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, at the junction of Europe and Asia, and is close to Israel, Syria, and Egypt. Islam and Christianity have repeatedly competed for the right to speak here.
The first and third Middle East wars broke out, and large numbers of Palestinians became homeless refugees, most of whom went to neighboring Jordan and Lebanon. The King of Jordan is very sympathetic to these uprooted people. The refugees have been better settled, and many of them can find a subsistence job in the local area, obtain resident status, and integrate themselves and their descendants into a foreign land. However, Palestinians in Lebanon are not so well treated. The Palestinians believe in the Sunni Islam of Islam, and the Lebanese government is dominated by the Shiites of Christianity and Islam, so the government is afraid of these intruders, because some of them have guns, that is the PLO organize.
Along with the refugees, the PLO retreated to southern Lebanon, using it as a new stronghold and a forward position against Israel, often firing rockets and artillery shells into Israel, disturbing the border. Therefore, the Lebanese government resettled these Palestinians in some fixed settlements and refugee camps. Neither the refugees nor their descendants had citizenship, and could not engage in decent jobs such as education, medical care, and civil service, and could only engage in low-end labor. The family of the protagonist Zane should belong to the descendants of these refugees. From the movie, it can be seen that their family is extremely poor, the whole family is dependent on others, and there is no hope for life. Parents gave birth to a bunch of children, but they could not give them good education and medical care. In order to support the rest of the family, they could only sacrifice their twelve-year-old daughter.
The influx of Palestine refugees has brought great changes to Lebanon's society. Originally, Lebanon was dominated by Christianity. The arrival of the refugees changed the proportion of the country's factions, and the contradiction between Muslims and Christianity appeared either explicitly or implicitly. came out, which directly led to the later fifteen years of civil war.
Although there is a large Muslim community in the country, Lebanon has no conservative style like other Arab countries, and it is one of the most secularized countries in the Middle East. Beirut, the capital city, is a bustling and prosperous seaport city with the mountains and the sea, known as the "Little Paris of the East". There are bars, nightclubs and casinos all over the place, and there are no-frills mosques next to sleek, revealing billboards. Every night, urban men and women start their nightlife, where women are not forced to wear headscarves and black robes, women can wear shorts, suspenders, tank tops, narrow skirts and bikinis. It's commonplace, which is why Lebanon is considered a country rich in beautiful women. It is said that Lebanese women are most liked by Saudi men, which makes me feel a little disgusted. After all, Saudi men are brutal to their own women, but they like foreign beauties in miniskirts or low-waisted pants. This is really hypocritical. Extremely. However, what makes me gratified is that Lebanese women do not like Saudi men, but British men the most, which is not difficult to understand. Their social status is several ranks higher than that of other Arab countries. Many of them Everyone has a high degree of education and can work in various industries such as finance, tourism, education and medical care, instead of only having children and doing housework, and not being allowed to drive like Saudi women until a few years ago. I think these characteristics are also well reflected in "Why Home". You can see that this is a country where women can be treated kindly by looking at the dresses of women in the film.
However, if we think that all people in Lebanon are living in prosperity and peace, we would be wrong. Lebanon is a country with a huge gap between the rich and the poor. The rich people living on Mount Lebanon spend their money here and are extremely lavish, but there are some dark corners on the edge of the city: the ghetto. In "Why Home", I saw a corner of Beirut, but I didn't feel the grandeur, cleanliness and tidy that it should be as a modern city, but felt it was crowded, chaotic and dilapidated. Lebanon is densely populated, and many of the buildings in those slums are illegally stamped, and the wires are densely wrapped around the house. The protagonist Zane's family lives in a cramped room, and the government never recognizes their citizenship, doesn't allow them to own property, and doesn't allow them to take on slightly more formal jobs. Their descendants are also mostly free-range and do not enjoy a good education. Although the official language of Lebanon is Arabic, mathematics and other subjects are taught in English in public schools, and there is a little French, which the poor cannot understand. Just imagine a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon. He is destitute and has no hope of life. His descendants are also deprived of all opportunities to turn over and can only repeat the old path of poverty. This is a desperate thing. I think that's why Zane eventually wanted to go to Europe, because he felt that was the only place he could be treated well.
Decades after the arrival of the Palestinians, another huge group of refugees has poured in: the Syrians. In 2011, the Arab Spring movement broke out in the Middle East, and many countries were affected, such as Egypt, Libya and Yemen. But when it comes to the worst injuries, it is Syria. The eight-year civil war has left the country devastated and the people are struggling. Until now, the local war has not subsided, which can be described as the biggest tragedy on earth in recent years. The war has forced more than four million Syrians to flee their homes and become refugees. Among them, the most unfortunate people died on the way to escape, some lucky people made it to Europe, and the rest went to neighboring Arab countries.
At its peak, there were 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, who lived in fixed host communities and received fixed monthly supplies and food stamps with the help of the UNHCR. Their living conditions are very difficult, the extreme cold in winter and the sweltering heat in summer are severe tests. In the movie, there is a pitiful little Syrian girl who lives alone on the street. I think her parents may have died in the war. As a Syrian refugee, she can receive limited supplies, but this material obviously cannot support her dreams. She makes money by selling wreaths on the street, hoping to save up to $500 to go to Sweden.
It can be seen that different countries have different attitudes towards refugees. The reason why the little girl wants to go to Europe shows that Lebanon cannot give her enough sense of security. So what is the situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon? Below I will do a detailed analysis for you.
By and large, Syrian refugees are not doing well in Lebanon, and some of them can be described as miserable. The first is the poor living environment. In the movie, we can feel the poor living environment of the Zane family. The Palestinians who came to Lebanon for decades are still like this, not to mention the Syrian refugees who are latecomers. And it is said that some of the refugee relief funds of the United Nations will be intercepted by the local government, which is even more infuriating. Some refugees work hourly to make ends meet, while others have nothing to do but beg along the streets. Manual labor is being scrambled by Syrians, leaving some Lebanese unemployed and deepening tensions between them and refugees.
When it comes to the misery of refugees, I have to talk about Syrian women in Lebanon. If the misfortune they suffered was made into a movie, I don't know how many audiences would be angry and complain about the sinister world. The status of women in Middle Eastern countries is generally low, and many of them are only used as fertility machines and housemaids. Think about how helpless these unskilled people are in the face of an existential crisis. As I have said in the previous article, Lebanon is a country with a very high degree of secularization, and the capital Beirut has many sensual places. Some Syrian women are forced into prostitution by local human traffickers and pick up customers dozens of times a day. If you don't obey, you will get abuse and beatings by the boss, and even death threats. Bosses threatened to put their nude photos online, and the women were conservative, which forced them to succumb to their bosses' obscenity. Some refugees marry their daughters to old Lebanese men in order to survive, just like Zane's family in the movie.
This is the situation of some Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Knowing this, it is not difficult to understand that the little Syrian girl desperately wanted to go to Sweden.
In the movie, after the protagonist Zane left home, he was taken in by a foreign worker, Rah Alessa. Aresa is from Ethiopia in Africa, a country far poorer than Lebanon. Aresa gave birth to her son Yunas in Lebanon. Yunas's father did not appear in the movie, but according to my speculation, Yunas' biological father was also a foreign worker. He and Aresa fell in love in Lebanon. Abandoned Aretha after she became pregnant. Aresa supports Yunas alone. Since she usually has to work to earn money, she has no time to take care of her son. Zane's appearance can just solve this problem. Zane is responsible for taking care of Yunas, on the condition that he can live in Aresa's house and life. Aresa was afraid to reveal the existence of Yunas, because that would make her lose her job, so she could only hide Yunas at home. As for the reason for this, it is necessary for me to talk about the third group of people in Lebanon: foreign workers.
Lebanon has a large number of foreign workers, most of whom come from Africa and Southeast Asia. Although their incomes are low, they are still content to work in Lebanon because their hometowns are more impoverished. Abortion is considered a crime in Lebanon, and women who do so are sentenced to six months to three years and doctors who perform them to one to three years. Still, thousands of women go to private clinics for abortions every year, so why?
It turns out that most families in Lebanon have foreign maids. After paying an agency fee of US$4,000, they can apply for a job of about US$300 per month. The Lebanese government stipulates that foreign domestic workers must give up their reproductive rights or they will be deported.
In Lebanon, the rights of these maids cannot be fully guaranteed, and unfortunate things often happen. Some masters are very harsh, and if they do something wrong, they will be beaten and abused. Other employers sexually harass their maids and kick them out of the house if the hostess finds out. Some maids could only endure silently in order to survive, while others jumped off the building in anger because they could not bear the abuse and harassment, so that nowadays African maids are very popular in Lebanon, because the hostess thinks they are very safe, but, It's too dark humor.
The above is my interpretation of the film "Why Home". After understanding these social backgrounds, our understanding of the film will be deeper.
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