Bearing the major brunt of today's refugee problem are the Third World countries and cities. Squatter settlements spring up and cling to the hillsides of Rio de Janeiro and Lima. The tombs of Cairo's City of the Dead become homes for thousands of dispossessed. Living on land they do not own, thousands of refugee households are displaced every year by demolitions and eviction notices. Where they exist, federal and city development programs, already stretched by limited budgets, are swamped by the needs of the new arrivals-jobs, housing, health, basic human services.
Poverty becomes the dominant social problem for the host city.
Against these pressures, compassion in the developing countries becomes jaded by economic realities. One day's solution becomes the next day's problem. There are signs that western compassion is also drying up in the face of these massive needs. Even our western vocabulary is beginning to sound to some like a negative echo. The people of God have tasted the plight of refugees before.