We need to stop telling ourselves that women and children are the only refugees who matter

Article here. Excerpt:

'David Cameron has now pledged to take in 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years, and singled out vulnerable children and orphans. This wasn't limited to one side of the political spectrum. Before his announcement, the former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett called on the Government to take 25,000 refugees over the next sixth months, and said that Syrian women and children should be given priority.

So far this hasn't proved controversial – everyone seems to agree that young people and women require the most attention. But we must be careful not to forget that this is a humanitarian issue, and one that affects an entire population. Otherwise, the message we're sending is that the lives of Arab men do not matter.

If our humanitarian sympathies are only summoned in response to children and families, then we risk dehumanising Arab men. This only helps to reinforce a history of Western misrepresentation, in which Arab men are viewed as dangerous, uncivilized, barbaric, and incapable of reason. This might not seem immediately obvious from their absence in the media's coverage. But the invisibility of the Arab men allows these ideas to insidiously fill the gaps, sometimes even subconsciously.'