Us & Them: The Refugee Trail with Scott Carrier

The crisis of people flooding out of war torn Middle Eastern countries and taking refuge in Europe has become a hot culture war topic in America.  Should we help these people?  What about the possibility of terrorist being imbedded in this group?

For this episode, we thought it’d be good to feature veteran journalist – or “cultural anthropologist” – Scott Carrier, who followed the migration of people fleeing Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan as they make their way into Europe.

Carrier, best known as a regular contributor for This American Life, hosts his own podcast Home of the Brave.  In our Us & Them episode, we play one of Carrier’s podcast episodes, where he follows a large group of these displaced citizens on their trek through the “Balkan Route”— a contained route specifically for traveling refugees. It starts in Greece and ends in Germany, where they have opened their borders for those who are able to make it that far (about 4,000 a day).

Carrier’s speaks with people whose lives have been torn apart, but who appear to be hopeful. At the end, I ask him about his experience with these people and if he has any hope for how this whole mess might be sorted out.  

Us & Them is a joint project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting and Trey Kay Productions, with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

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