The heart-wrenching images we’ve seen of many Syrian refugees, including children―  dying in their unsuccessful attempts to reach Europe, have left many wondering what can be done to alleviate the suffering of so many. German Chancellor Angela Merkel enthusiastically proclaimed that Germany would take in 500,000 migrants each year, fundamentally changing the country in the process. Other leaders, like President Barack Obama, have sought to bring in hundreds of thousands  of migrants fleeing the instability of the Middle East. Overall, millions of Arab migrants are now surging to the West for sanctuary.

Unfortunately, basing a monumental migrant policy on emotion rather than cerebrally weighing the costs and benefits of opening up the doors to millions of migrants is not the right approach. Indeed, that has already backfired in Germany, which quickly reversed course on Sept. 13 and closed off its southern borders for “urgent security reasons.” Other nations like Slovakia, Hungary and Poland are refusing to succumb to pressure from the European Union to open their borders to the migrant surge.

It’s quite clear why this is happening, Europeans and Americans see much danger in no-questions-asked open borders to people from the volatile, violent and, in many cases, extremist Middle East.

For one, there are serious security questions for the leaders who tell us that the only approach is to take in these migrants: Who is coming here? How many migrants are from Syria and not from other countries like Libya, Nigeria and Gambia, as is the case in Italy with its migrant situation? How can it be ensured that these migrants are not affiliated with the brutal Assad regime, or the Islamic State, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups fighting in the Syrian Civil War? 

How many of these migrants are radicalized or are susceptible to radicalization, as Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bousaab warned British Prime Minister David Cameron? Where are the oil-rich, wealthy Gulf states of Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in helping and welcoming in their fellow Arab brothers and sisters? What would be a feasible, efficacious background check policy to separate the huge migrant cluster into good guys and bad guys when we’ve already had experience with “clearing” the likes of the Tsarnaev brothers as refugees in less dire times?

Apart from security concerns, there are more issues, like assimilation and integration into Western societies. A good sign of whether immigrants are assimilating into their new country is to look at the extent to which they work, participate in and contribute to society. 

But based on welfare and unemployment numbers both in America and abroad, many migrants have difficulty doing so. In America, 90 percent of Muslim immigrants are on food stamps while 68 percent are on some form of welfare, according to a 2013 report by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In Europe, which isn’t structured as well for assimilation as America is, the problems continue, with the welfare state pinning foreign cultures against French culture in France, Swedish culture in Sweden, English culture in England. 

For example, in the United Kingdom, which has the third highest Muslim population in Western Europe, unemployment and not-in-paid-work status is highest among those born in countries like Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. By looking at data from the Labour Force Survey of the Office for National Statistics, it is shown that the proportion of adults not paid to work is past 80 percent for Somali women and 60 percent for Somali men. That proportion for Bangladeshi women is almost 80 percent for Bangladeshi men, around 30 percent — and so on and so forth.

In Germany, with the biggest Muslim population in Western Europe, the unemployment rate in many Muslim communities hovers around 50 percent, according to Deborah Potter, a correspondent to Religion and Ethics Newsweekly on PBS. 

In an Oct. 30, 2009 broadcast of “Muslims in Germany,” Potter continues that Germany has been “offering subsidized language and culture classes for adults at a cost of about $200 million a year. But those who sign up don’t always come.” Attrition and many being on the rolls of the generous German welfare state mean that many choose to stay home. 

Instead of transitioning to Western society where their lives are better, freer and more prosperous, many migrants falter and are left behind in societies that are intrinsically different and can be fundamentally unsuitable for them. 

It’s a tough situation where our emotional senses conflict with our rationale. Many have rhetorically asked “what can be done?” There are several smart steps that can be taken instead of blindly following myopic, kneejerk feelings. For those who have truly nowhere else to go, like the Yazidis and the Arab Christians being massacred and slaughtered by the Islamic 

State and others, the West comes as their only option. The West is key in guaranteeing and securing the individual rights of Yazidis, Arab Christians and others to freely practice their religion and to live.

For the rest, it is imperative that the West, which has been incredibly generous in granting asylum and resettling millions of refugees and migrants fleeing war and oppression from around the world for decades (I am the son of refugees who fled religious persecution from the Soviet Union), urge the rest of the Middle East to do more. 

President Obama ought to use his bully pulpit as President of the United States to pressure the Arab Gulf states to take in migrants instead of sitting by the sidelines, refusing to accept even one migrant from a neighboring, unstable nation.

America and the West should also, in the immediate future, help with relief efforts for these migrants, because that’s what the West does: we take a leading role in helping those who are facing immense, immediate adversity. But there’s only so much the West can do. The rich Gulf states must step up and take a leading role.

In the long run, it’s high time we actually begin destroying the Islamic State and other terrorist groups while supporting pro-democracy Middle Eastern movements like 2009’s Green Revolution in Iran, which President Obama conspicuously chose to ignore. Only through a clear vision that strongly encourages and supports liberal, secular and democratic movements wherever they arise can we begin to see long-lasting peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

This migrant crisis is unique, and different from others seen in the past. The threat of radicalization and Islamic terrorism, as well as the proliferation of the Western welfare state, are very real factors that should affect and influence the West’s migrant policy. 

Sacrificing important priorities like national security and assimilation to put a bandage on a migrant problem that requires much more action at its source represents a dangerous precedent. Let’s not be blinded by our compassion and sympathy. Let’s be guided by rationality and truth.