NC State professors Robert Moog, Mark Nance and Andy Taylor discussed the global issues facing society, including immigration and refugee conflicts, Tuesday evening in Withers Hall. About 100 students attended to listen to the experts speak about these conflicts in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis. 

Moog spoke of the issues in Syria such as the Russian Air Force’s presence in Syria and whether or not it is beneficial, the difficulties of setting up a no-fly zone and who will enforce it and the Islamic State. 

He also elaborated on the countries around Syria and what they have been facing from the Syrian refugee crisis, mainly Turkey who has taken in the most refugees but has been in conflict with the Kurdish fighters within Syria.  

Nance talked about the issues facing Europe corresponding to the refugee crisis. Nance focused his talk around European nations and the effect that immigration and the Syrian refugee crisis has had on them rather than the issues pertaining specifically to Syria.  

Extreme right-wing parties who oppose immigration have been growing in Europe, though this has occurred even before the Syrian refugee crisis.  

“How Europe approaches refugees is being driven in part by the politics of it, and that has some problems,” Nance said. 

Taylor focused on immigration problems in the United States and spoke about the controversies of the refugee crisis and illegal immigration, such as whether or not the U.S. accepts refugees and if so, how many?  

“There are about 1 million legal immigrants who immigrate to the U.S. each year— mainly for family reasons,” Taylor said. 

Sam LaFell, a sophomore studying communication and Spanish, was intrigued by what he learned from the event. 

“I didn’t know much about the issue coming into this,” LaFell said. “It was very interesting for me to get three different perspectives based around Syria and based around America.” 

LaFell noted that he usually attends these types of events to get more information on global issues.

The global issue seminars are usually held once a month to discuss different issues we face in the world. The seminars normally include speakers from NC State who are experts on the topic.