Final Blog Post- Caroline Van Etten

            Over the course of this semester, my group and I focused on following the Syrian refugee ‘crisis’ and researched how it is being perceived and legally dealt with by different kinds of people and organizations. Our first post was a general overview of what the situation is with Syrian refugees flooding into Europe: why they are immigrating and how it is affecting the world. We also looked specifically at the European Union and how different countries have been handling the massive influx of refugees. Our second post was more in depth and focused specifically on the short term and long term economic impact of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in the European Union. As a group we researched the potential benefits and obstacles the refugees could have on different economies in the EU. Our final blog post took a closer look at the social impact of the Syrian refugee crisis: how the refugees are being treated by the European Union and the refugee’s stance on the situation. The stance on the crisis, we learned, varies greatly from country to country and for different reasons. Some countries took a more humanitarian approach while others were more concerned with the potential economic hardships such a huge number of immigrants could bring to a country.  By researching and writing about such a complex issue together, our group learned to cooperate and share responsibilities very well. As a group, we were highly functioning and developed comprehensive blog posts about one of the most pressing issues of this year.

            Shortly after the groups were created, our group established a system where each member takes a concept for a body paragraph and does the research and writing for that paragraph. That way one person doesn’t only do the research or only do the writing.  After I was given my topic I spent a lot of time reading different articles from different perspectives to ensure a well- rounded analysis. For example, I would read an article about the EU’s perspective about the economic ramifications of the refugee crisis and then compare it to a refugee’s perspective on economic impact. Working as a group really inspired me to do as thorough work as I could because all my group members were contributing very well developed paragraphs. As a group, we motivated one another to contribute our best work. I really emphasized diversity in my research because the topic is so controversial and multi-faceted. I used the official European Union website a lot as well. I also used the Fusion resource from Gleeson library to try and find scholarly analytical articles whenever I could. Working in my group definitely influenced the way I approached my research because I wanted to meet my groups standard. Working in a group kept me motivated to produce my best work for the sake of the team effort. 

            Overall, I genuinely enjoyed doing the blog and thought they were a very effective way to be active with current events, learn to work comprehensively in a group, and practice research and writing methods. I was very happy to be put in the group that I was in because the refugee crisis is one I am really interested in. Immigration has been a huge controversial topic recently, and the blog allowed me to become very well versed on an issue that will continue to be prevalent in the world. I learned that the roots of this problem is much more complex than the media covers. I genuinely saw my research methods improve by doing these blog posts. I never had great research techniques, but striving to match my groups in depth research and analysis pushed me to spend more time researching and comparing different perspectives on the subject. I typically don’t like group work that much because I feel like more often than not one or two people always end up doing a disproportionate amount of the work and it lowers the overall quality. Our group, however, operated really well together. We split up the work evenly and everyone pulled their own weight. For me personally, the group elevated my level of research and composition. I didn’t want to be the one to hinder a highly functioning group. We raised one another’s standards and I think the final product was always very well composed.