There are currently thousands upon thousands of refugees flooding into Europe from war torn parts of the Middle East, predominantly Syria. Many European countries have been trying to welcome refugees and provide them with safety and shelter.

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have called into question the flood of refugees that have been entering Europe, and in America a number of governors have tried to ban refugees from being allowed in their states. While I disagree with much of the criticism leveled against the refugee crisis and how it should be handled, there are a few things I want to note.

To start off, in the United States, we can handle refugees safely. To say that if we let refugees in we risk letting in terrorist is true, but not much more than saying if we let anyone into the country we risk letting in terrorists.

The United States counter-terrorist and terrorism prevention forces are pretty d*** good, and the screening to enter the country is elaborate. We also aren’t facing a flood of immigrants coming straight over our borders the way European countries are, we can handle a small influx of refugees. They aren’t going to steal all our jobs, or ruin the country.

On the other hand Europe faces a much larger issue because they face a much larger influx, as well as, much less space per country. What I mean by this is that Europe (especially Western Europe) is highly developed, and much of the land and property is in use. Movement between borders of European Union citizens doesn’t pose much of a problem since the overall number is stable, but the influx of new refugees poses economic challenges that we in the U.S. do not face from inviting in refugees.

The problem is surely complicated; Many of the main cities in Europe can’t handle the influx of refugees, they don’t have the infrastructure or labor market to support them, while smaller cities and towns that have been dying over the past decade can handle refugees and could use more immigrants and refugees to keep the economy of their towns alive.

So why aren’t the refugees just redirected to the small towns where they will be able to find work and homes more easily? Part of the problem is that they might not be welcome.

A large voice of the citizens of European states are weary and to a certain extent tired of the immigration of people from Northern Africa and the Middle East into Europe (and now refugees). It causes conflict; either welcome in others along with their culture and develop ways for there to be cultural diversity and tolerance, or ask immigrants and refugees to assimilate into the country’s respective culture.

The New Yorker recently published an article, “The Other France” covering the life, culture, and views of a predominantly Muslim suburb of Paris. Part of the problem that becomes apparent is that many immigrants from Northern Africa and the Middle East don’t feel welcome in Europe because culturally they differ so greatly. Refugees flee wars in Syria, but Europe is not a home, or at least doesn’t feel like it.

And many Europeans don’t want refugees because they’re afraid they’ll lose their culture. Small towns, which are the ones that could really use immigrants and refugees, especially face the loss of their culture as many natives leave and are replaced by people from completely different backgrounds and worldviews.

So how does Europe handle this problem? Is it best to welcome refugees in and then marginalize them into their own suburbs and towns? Or should more be done to assimilate them into the secular-quasi-christian culture? Or does more effort need to be made, not to assimilate, but foster a cultural diversity between the cultures of respective countries and the people they are welcoming in?

I don’t have answers, but it’s a problem that’s hard to understand coming from an American viewpoint. We are a country founded first upon British colonialism and then largely immigration. People from all over the world have come to the United States in search of a better life from the beginnings and we have been a country well equipped to handle this: we have lots of land, and our laws aim to be tolerant of and accepting of differences (though we may not be perfect).

More importantly our culture is essentially mixed. I would argue there is no such thing as a national U.S. identity the way that there might be French, German, Spanish, or Italian. So when we think about threats to culture, it’s hard for us to take that line of thought seriously. But please do.

Recognize that the United States is not Europe, and that worries over refugees there raise serious questions and issues that need work to be resolved. I’m not saying stop taking in refugees, by any means, but more questions need to asked on what to do with them when they get there.