Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The truth about memes

You may have seen this meme about refugees:
Perhaps even because I posted it on social media. It was posted by a trusted friend so I shared it. Without thinking too much about it really. Until an other friend challenged me to find the actual study this meme ('Refugees bring in more money than they cost!') refers to. I found information about the study here, on Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/study-refugees-brought-in-revenues/

Seems the study left out an important fact: the fiscal benefits of admitting refugees. Basically the revenue is even higher than at first stated. 'See, the study is false!', people started shouting.

Yes, because refugees bring in much more money than the study first claimed.

The friend than send me this link
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/09/leaked-hhs-refugee-report-interesting-flawed/ from a Extreme right wing biased website that claims to prove the study is a total falsehood. Based on a combination of reading the report, a 'gut feeling', some fabricated 'facts' and a bit of 'hearsay' the author arguments that the revenue outweighs their costs 'only after a few years'. Basically stating refugees perform a whole lot better than native born citizens who only become productive after some 25 years when they finally start bringing in more money than they cost.

In an effort to disgrace researchers by proving them wrong Steven A. Camarota accidentally established the fact refugees actually bring in a lot more money than they cost.

Mister Camarota is attached to the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think thank, co-founded by a white nationalist who thinks the form of someone's skull says something about his or her mental abilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Immigration_Studies

So, who do you believe: a bunch of actual journalists or someone who is convinced he is better than other people simply because his skin has a lighter tone?

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00K4007NG

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