Warfare, natural disasters, and personal persecution force millions of people around the world to leave their homes and seek refuge in foreign places. The refugee crisis is a global problem. According to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Conflict Tracker, there are over 25 active conflicts currently taking place around the world. These conflicts are forcing millions of families to relocate. Moreover, the deteriorating global climate and the vilification of the ‘other’ adds to the magnitude of the refugee problem. These conflicts and catastrophic events that cause a group of people to relocate put the distressed population in a burdensome position, as they are forced to leave the lives they have built to start anew in unfamiliar places. This problem has consequences and unintended burdens affecting the host communities. Host communities are forced to abruptly share their infrastructure and social services which, in many cases, are not engineered to serve an added population. In other cases, differences in social values cause ethical complications to both the refugees and their host communities.

Warfare is one of the major factors that force people towards becoming refugees. In many cases these wars are a result of political disagreement between the government and the leadership of neighboring countries. When politicians view differences as points of conflict rather than opportunities for unity, they invest in a military approach, rather than a social approach, to bridge the gap. Meanwhile, host nations view refugees who come from warzones as an unwanted burden on their infrastructure and social services, rather than an opportunity for growth and evolution. 

Natural disasters around the world are another factor that forces people to relocate to other countries. Such disasters have increased in frequency and intensity as global warming continues to amplify climate change. Affected populations normally tend to relocate to another area of their home countries where they find temporary shelter. In other cases they extend their journey to other countries, neighboring or on different continents, especially in cases where the country affected by the natural disaster has already been suffering from deteriorating social services. 

In addition to warfare and natural disasters, fear of persecution is one of the factors that forces individuals to leave their countries and communities to find safety and acceptance in other places, often in different countries. Individuals are discriminated against, abused, and killed across the world for a variety of reasons: familial history, social class, assigned gender, sexual orientation, and physical attributes are just a few of the many reasons that force a person to leave their communities, to build a life somewhere else. Personal persecution is often caused by misinformation and lack of education. Misinformation can be systematic, and implemented as an educational diet of falsehoods and fallacies. This is usually administered by a government to capitalize on dividing a society and make it more susceptible to oppression by their ruling regimes. In other cases, weak education caused by a weak economy and debilitating infrastructure result in the empowerment of the strong, and the oppression of the weak. 

The refugee problem has two parts; the first part addresses the relationship between the group of refugees and their country of origin, and the second is in respect to the individuals and their relationship to their host communities. Humans are beings of habit, and we build our lives on a path that leads toward our goals. When a crisis takes place, such as the 1994 genocide that swept Rwanda, killing 800,000 people and displacing millions, or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in 14 different countries, people with no intention of leaving their homes were suddenly displaced. 

Refugees, in most cases, hope to return to their respective home countries the moment the reason for their relocation is resolved. A strong example of a refugee populations’ will to return is the accumulative Palestinian refugee population in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, where millions of Jordanian residents of Palestinian origins, dating back to the middle of the 20th century, are still holding on to their right to return to their ancestors' villages in the West Bank. Furthermore, that same population did not move to the East Bank of Jordan to sit idle. Rather, they brought the prospect of cultural and economic growth to their neighboring country, continuously adding to Jordan’s cultural make-up and economic potential.

Hence, the answer to the refugee question has to be with two parts; one addressing the cause of the crisis, and another addressing the consequences. A group of people who are forced to relocate do so for a number of different reasons, and each of these reasons requires a unique approach. For example, there are many wars around the world and each of them needs a different type of peaceful resolution. A devastating tornado needs a quick rebuild of homes and infrastructure. A contaminated water source requires a study of the contamination and a plan for purifying. 

On the other hand, the consequences of the refugee problem in their host communities are similar across the board, in that almost all host communities suffer with burdened school systems, healthcare services, and inadequate infrastructure. Additionally, in cases of relocation due to personal persecution, minority empowerment is necessary to solve the cause of crises, and to alleviate the consequences of the relocation on the host community.  Empowerment of minorities in the countries of origin is done through educational reform and social programs. In the case of host communities, the best approach would be through personal empowerment of the individuals, which could play a strong role in raising positive awareness and changing stereotypes that led to the individual’s relocation.

As millions of people are forced to relocate due to warfare, natural disaster and personal persecution, the human race must take responsibility in addressing the refugee crisis as a whole. We, collectively, are responsible for eliminating the reasons that force people to change their aspirations and hopes in life to flee conflict and poor resources, and to alleviate the burdens that lay on the shoulders of those in crisis. We owe it to ourselves as a global population to find a comprehensive peace resolution that ends war and orients us towards global peace, to stop our actions that are causing decay to our environment, and to embrace the people who differ from ourselves as unique fragments of our human race, no more or less important and valuable than ourselves.