The Refugee Crisis in the context of the Paris attacks
http://www.wsj.com/articles/paris-stadium-attacker-entered-europe-via-greece-1447698583
This article addresses the tragedy that occurred in Paris over the weekend, looking at the reverberating effects it will continue to have. More than just the unfathomable crime of taking human lives, especially innocent ones, the article addresses the very persistent and long-lasting fear that will develop, and like a set of dominoes, will have effects beyond what is immediately obvious. Specifically, as the article says, the fear the attacks caused make people more nationalistic, and less trusting of anyone that falls under the category of “outsiders.” And in turn, this will motivate many domestic and foreign policy changes in Europe.
In the short-term, this affects the Syrian refugee crisis primarily because of the now-instilled and automatic fear towards outsiders, and is fueling the theory that the refugees are potential extremists and ISIS members in disguise. Furthermore a Syrian passport was found near one of the suicide bombers, and although (as the second article states) the passport was confirmed to be a fake, the misinformation still spread throughout the masses. Poland’s newly elected government has already shown reluctance to admit refugees, despite the guidelines outlined in EU’s refugee relocation program. Sweden announced that it intends to partially close its borders to new refugees, and other countries will almost certainly be inclined to follow, despite the lack of evidence connecting terrorists to refugees that are simply trying to escape the wars that plague their home.
This article, and the recent tragedies, reiterate the idea that, especially in this time period with the connections that the evolution of the internet has provided, every event will almost certainly have consequences pertaining to other things. And the misinformation about the fake Syrian passport and fear cascaded throughout countries, throughout continents, so far as to affect policies. Similar to the information cascades we studied, people believed it because of what previous people told them – they only looked at their reactions, parallel to choosing reject and accept. Once enough people accepted their theory, everyone else ignored their signals (any evidence) and reports of the attack published that story.