GENEVA (AP) — Europe should boost its efforts to integrate newcomers from places like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.N. refugee agency chief said Tuesday, calling it "one of the great challenges" of the future. "More thinking and more resources" should go into the integration of refugees, he said, because if done properly, it could "counter xenophobic tendencies, violent rejection and propaganda against foreigners" that have accompanied the influx at times. Grandi spoke to The Associated Press at UNHCR's Geneva headquarters ahead of two summits in New York on refugees and migrants on Sept. 19-20 — including one convened by U.S. President Barack Obama — near the start of the U.N. General Assembly ministerial session. The massive inflows last year prompted a red-hot debate that ripped at the EU's fabric because countries like Germany and Austria were more welcoming, Greece and Italy more burdened, and a number of mostly eastern European countries resistant to take in refugees.
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