Madeleine Albright: Immigrants are a Burden

Democrat and Clinton’s former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appeared on CNN Monday to discuss the European migrant crisis. She now faces criticism for saying that immigrants are a burden, but I think this no-nonsense lady has the right idea.  

“I think it is one of the great tragedies of our time. I was a refugee. I clearly didn’t have such a tragic story, but I know what it’s like to have to leave your country because you can’t live there anymore,” said Czechoslovakian-born Albright. “There are more refugees in the world today than at any time. And we have to be able to deal with it.” 

The E.U. is busy planning an emergency meeting to figure out what to do with the 300,000+ immigrants that have flooded into their borders this year. Some of these immigrants are refugees, others are simply looking for a better life.  

“I hope that they are really seeing it as an emergency and are really making plans to try to distribute the burden,” Albright told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “Because it is a burden when people come into a country and that, in fact, they figure out a way to make Europe what it should be in the 21st century; is a welcoming place for those who can’t live where they want to.”

Some countries, like Hungary, have responded to the tide of immigrants by erecting barbed wire fences to keep them out. 

The former Secretary of State spoke about Europe as if it were a single entity, stating, “There has to be an all-European plan…it’s important for the Europeans to see it as an issue for all of them and to be able to deal with it in a very rapid way so you don’t see the kinds of things we’ve been seeing on TV and people just being treated as if they weren’t human.” 

Madeleine Albright became the first female Secretary of State in 1997, has served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, and currently serves as a director for the Council on Foreign Relations.