Has our compassion gotten far out ahead of careful thinking?

Are the Middle East refugees seeking sanctuary from violence? Ian Tuttle examines some statistics at National Review:

Perhaps the most telling statistic is the ratio of men to women and children in the overall migrant population: 72 percent to 13 percent and 15 percent, respectively, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Why is it that over five times as many men as women are fleeing violence?

Tuttle continues,

According to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, 21,000 foreign volunteers had signed on with the Islamic State as of January; nearly one-fifth were from Western Europe. With effective control of 115,000-plus square miles and an online presence that tallies upwards of 90,000 social-media posts daily — much of that total from Islamic State supporters posting independently — the Islamic State’s ability to manipulate the migrant crisis to its ends is hardly negligible. Given the sheer magnitude of the migration, it is a virtual certainty that terrorist organizations are taking advantage of the crisis to insinuate themselves into Europe.

...The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement reports that 91.4 percent of refugees from the Middle East (the definition of which does not include Somalia) were on food stamps in Fiscal Year 2013, and 68.3 percent were on some type of cash assistance.

And, of course, the economic burdens of resettling Syrian migrants would come atop the burdens American taxpayers have assumed following last summer’s influx of unaccompanied minors across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read more here.