How Social Entrepreneurs Can Help Build A United Europe

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Europe currently struggles to handle the ongoing refugee situation. Social enterprises can offer an antidote through education & occupation, here's how:

In the previous article I presented a concept of social entrepreneurship highly compelling to people who seek help or a better life. The social enterprise is directed at creating social wealth. In case of the current migrant crisis in Europe, it is very important not only to help people who are guilty for being persecuted but also create a value beneficial for both – refugees and local people.

Civil War, Refugees And Chaos In Europe

The civil war goes hand in hand with social and economic deprivation, extreme poverty. It breeds suffer, evil and hatred, which is so welcoming for radicalism and terrorism. When the negative social, economic, and political trends converge, the socioeconomic development appears compelling as an effective antidote. The economic and social context within which radicalism roots is profoundly important. Without societal support, most terrorist and radical movements are doomed to fail.

The situation we face right now is the European escalation of fear to accept and help refugees. It’s comparatively easy to guess that it leads to the absence of the last hope to get anything relative to their only expectations. Having no way out of the doomed circle “being persecuted or kicked out of a secure place”, more and more migrant people turn to the mosque and its dogmas. From the moment the mosques become the last resort to escape life’s sufferings, the outcome is easy to predict: the Islamisation of dissent. From then on the religion becomes politicized. The more it’s politicized, the more we, Europeans, are in fear of terrorist attacks & the more we fear, the sharper we react to the current migrant crisis. Consequently, hatred generates more hatred and nobody can stop the vicious cycle of radicalism, terrorism, and civil war.

Education And Occupation As An Antidote

The goal is to reduce the social, economic, and political appeal of radicalism and terrorism. One of the ways we can do that is to educate and integrate immigrants into the local society. The ones who opt the radical Islamism share relatively narrow-minded views. Most of them didn’t have the opportunity to attend school and get an occupation to sustain their family. The limited number of books or knowledge resources, can also restrict their point of view. To multiply that we have to take into account that most of the children couldn’t not attend school for (minimum) the last five years because of the Syrian war. We are getting the “lost generation” not immunized to the radical propaganda that can convert them into potential terrorists.

Here comes the volunteering project of the university for refugees in. Imagine a university that could provide an education to refugees for free. The Kiron University is a bright example of social enterprise that helps refugees to get back into further education after being displaced from their home country. It has a highly-inspiring vision to provide millions of refugees worldwide the chance to graduate at an institution. Not only does it give displaced people a higher chance of employment in the new countries, but it also provides a social and professional network where they can meet others facing similar challenges as well as the people who are willing to help them. Consequently, such a social entrepreneurial project builds a strong ground for a loyal and tolerant community where the opposing ideologies can co-exist, it reduces the grievances of suffering people and increases the chances of meeting their expectations of living in peace and dignity.

Food For Thought

In a wide range of sociological studies, it has been investigated that there is a growing number of educated but unemployed youth turning into jihadists. Most of these young people grew up in the EU. One of the reason that might be happening is the case that the educated youth has the highest political aspirations and expectations but is frustrated when they can’t get employed and have their expectations met. The growth of unemployment among educated people often creates a class of ‘frustrated achievers’ who may end up becoming radicalized militants looking for a political cause to hang on to.

Therefore, it is well understandable that not only education and integration are so important in the current migrant crisis but also a ground for people to apply their education and working potential and achieve a decent life in the hosting country. At this stage comes an acute need for the marketplace where refugees can accomplish different projects (painting houses, taking care of cats/dogs, delivering something, etc.) in. Nobody has yet created such a platform but the idea has a potential as Europe faces labour shortages in some low–skilled occupations. I believe such a marketplace can be a good social entrepreneurial project, which will bring value both to immigrants and local people.

 

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