THESE Iraqis recently kissed the ground after returning home from a period as refugees in Finland. They wept with relief after leaving the cold, European country and arriving home. The Finnish government provided many with financial help to get home, rather than giving them help to stay.

Ann Corcoran writes about the idea of flying refugees back to their home countries and providing them with starter funds. The same thing could be done here. Instead of the American government giving money to agencies who resettle refugees and other immigrants it could set up a generous Repatriation Fund.

Wouldn’t this be true multiculturalism? All people are meant to be home.

The fund could, in addition to resettling African and Middle Eastern refugees in their own countries, encourage illegals from Mexico and Central America to go home. Obviously for many it would not be an incentive and obviously there would need to be strict limits on this idea, but it has potential, provided the border is secured (troops or a wall), applicants haven’t committed crimes and they agree to relinquish all hope of returning.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of those who come to America are actually disappointed when they settle here. It is harder and colder than they expected. But they often have no way to get home. They are only provided help to stay. Air fare and a one-time stipend might induce them — especially if the alternative were a complete cut-off of government subsidies — to start over again. It would be much cheaper in the long run for America. The concept of deportation could be replaced, in some cases, with the humanitarian concept of repatriation. We shouldn’t even talk of deporting, we should talk only of repatriating.

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