What should the United States do about the Syrian refugee crisis?

[Simfan34]

Serious proposal: we should accept around 3 million refugees over the next five years, giving preference to persecuted Christians, Kurds, and members of the middle class, and resettle at least 500,000 in Detroit, where there is cheap housing and a large Levantine population. Other economically deprived regions would also be targeted for refugee inflow. They benefit, we benefit.

For personal political purposes, this would ideally be carried out by a Republican administration, but I acknowledge that's not happening unless Donald Trump suddenly developed a fondness for the idea.

[Simfan34]

members of the middle class

How would you do this, in practical terms? Giving preference to people with college degrees?

I think this is a bit of a sketchy criterion, because it's not as if middle-class people are significantly more unsafe than lower-class people (on the contrary, probably), which makes this very different from taking in Kurds and Christians.

I agree. I hear much about these "middle class refugees" so I assume they have some method of telling them apart.

We should accept a few million. And NO preferences for people with college degrees or Christians - everybody over there is being oppressed nonetheless.

Well the preferences are there for 3 reasons--

1) To make the refugee flows more palatable to the general population
2) These groups are being targeted for particular persecution
3) My personal biases