The Syrian refugee crisis is now one of the biggest in history: 2 million have fled the country, 5 million more are displaced within Syria and there is more to come. The sooner the fighting abates enough to let people go home the better, but no one expects that soon. If Syria fragments into religious ghettoes, many refugees may find they cannot go home at all. Like so many other displaced persons worldwide, those who have fled - half of them children -could fester for years in camps and slums, incubators for rage and future conflict. Can we prevent this? Scientists who study refugees see some hopeful signs. In the past, host countries gave refugees only enough to survive in the hope they wouldn't stay long - a policy called "humane deterrence".
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