--- title: Are the Syrian Refugees All 'Young, Strong Men'? description: Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has said the Syrian refugees are all "young, strong men." Here are the facts. canonical: https://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-20T19:54:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:48:27.261Z article:section: Politics og:title: Are the Syrian Refugees All 'Young, Strong Men'? og:description: Not exactly. og:url: https://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GREECE-EUROPE-MIGRANTS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Are the Syrian Refugees All 'Young, Strong Men'? twitter:description: Not exactly. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Are the Syrian Refugees All 'Young, Strong Men'? by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 20, 2015 7:54 PM UTC  A family of Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 17, 2015. A family of Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 17, 2015.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Nov 20, 2015 7:54 PM UTC At a number of events this week, leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeated claims that the Syrian refugees the U.S. is taking in are strong young men as part of his fear that those seeking asylum could carry out terrorist attacks. In an interview with [_Yahoo News_](https://www.yahoo.com/politics/donald-trump-has-big-plans-1303117537878070.html), Trump said: --- > “” --- Speaking to Fox’s [Sean Hannity,](http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2015/11/18/trump-syria-refugees-could-be-ultimate-trojan-horse/) he said: --- > “” --- And during a speech at an event in [Worcester, Massachusetts](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/nov/19/donald-trump-refugees-could-be-greatest-trojan-horse-of-all-time-video), he said: --- > “” --- Trump is not alone among Republicans in calling into question whether the U.S. should admit Syrian refugees, but his claim that those seeking admission here are almost all “young, strong men” is somewhat unique. It’s also not entirely true. The [United Nations](http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php) has registered over 4.2 million Syrian refugees, a step in seeking asylum from other countries, and has a demographic snapshot of about half of them. Of the 2.1 million registered in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon there’s a pretty even split in gender: about 50.5% are women and 49.7% are men. For men and women, the bulk of refugees (a little under a quarter each) are between the age of 18 and 59. In Europe, over 800,000 migrants have traveled to Europe by sea in 2015, according to the [United Nations](http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php) refugee agency, and a little over half have come from Syria. About 62% of all migrants that have traveled to Europe this year, however, are men. A little under a quarter, 22%, are children and only 16% are women. The [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/europe/migration-of-young-men-poses-risks-for-both-syria-and-europe.html) reported in October the mass exodus of men to parts of Europe could cause problems in both the countries they leave and the countries they enter. The head of the International Organization for Migration in Turkey told the _Times_: “We know on the positive side that migration can boost economies and trade and lead to cultural exchange … But if it is mismanaged, it becomes a problem for both the receiving states and the countries left behind.” In the U.S. alone, a little over 2,000 Syrian refugees that have been admitted to the U.S. since 2001, though the U.S. has plans to resettle 10,000 refugees by next year. Throughout this week, the Obama administration has defended the process for screening refugees, a process it says is stringent and prioritizes the most vulnerable. On a background press call this week, a senior [State Department](http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/11/249613.htm) official gave the following breakdown of exactly who has been let in: --- > “” --- Trump isn’t exactly wrong—many of the refugees seeking asylum _in Europe_ are indeed young men. But as the [TIME’s Karl Vick](http://time.com/4042813/syria-refugee-civil-war-isis/) wrote in September, many of the men are fleeing the same enemy nations across the world find themselves up against. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/"},"headline":"Are the Syrian Refugees All 'Young, Strong Men'?","datePublished":"2015-11-20T19:54:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:48:27.261Z","description":"Here are the facts","url":"https://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/","keywords":["Donald Trump","republicans","ISIS","Syrian refugees","Islam","Paris attack"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23e9e7e668f07ae6/698871700b72e37a1a6e6db5/syrian-refugees-governers-us.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GREECE-EUROPE-MIGRANTS","caption":"A family of Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Nov. 17, 2015.","creditText":"Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4122186/syrian-refugees-donald-trump-young-men/","name":"Are the Syrian Refugees All 'Young, Strong Men'?"}}]}] ```