Assimilation

bonniebede

This topic came up on another thread (now closed as it was off point there) so I thought i would open it up as a thread on its own.

Apart from amusing reference to the assimilation carried out in science fiction by the borg, where people become wedded to their technology and behave in strange ways....

If we had a disaster with a sudden resource shortage without immediate population loss, one of the types of things we have discussed here on the board, do you think we are likely to be hit by waves of refuggees, and if so how would we best accommodate them into our survival strategies?

To answer for myself, I think if i was in the UK, knowing how little food to population ratio there is in terms of indigenous farming, I think i could well be tempted to take a trip across to Ireland, given its much higher food production per capita ratio.

What would the effect of that be? Do you think there would be any official response or attempt to control it? And how do you think people would react?

Of course, a lot of people in the uk might already be irish and returning home, could we cope with this?

I think xenophbia might be quite likely to become a problem, what arguments could one present to help the native population be willing to accept refugees graciously?

I'm presuming one desires to help, within the limits of the situation, not really interested in any other possibility.

Doc Ruby

Refugees would be fine, we as a nation have already shown our willingness to help people from all corners of the globe without apparently any notable racism or xenophobia.

Its a fact that Ireland can produce far, far more food than it needs, and the UK is not self sufficient in food. This is large scale disaster management stuff, and we can see examples of how its handled all over the world. Refugee camps, triage centres, then repatriation after the problem has passed.

A bigger issue might be, and I think its somewhat beyond the remit of this forum, if any "administration" remains here in Ireland able to enforce its laws, the same will probably exist in the UK, so what's to stop them just taking what they want, given a long term deprivation situation?

But no, I don't see many problems arising, unless refugee numbers bounced into the tens of millions over the course of a couple of years. Then the infrastructure itself would be buried.