As our world faces the worst refugee crisis in history, the best responses have been largely self-serving and as a consequence, have exacerbated and not solved the problem.

The costs of hosting migrants in Europe is getting higher. The number of deaths in ongoing wars is rising. Refugees continue drowning at sea.

To find lasting peace, there must be systemic change at the source of the crisis and a complete overhaul of refugee resettlement systems. This means an unprecedented investment in democracy in third world countries and regulating resettlement agencies to become representative of their constituency.

Given the high cost of addressing the symptoms, investment in democracy makes sense. The Cologne Institute for Economic Research says Germans will pay US$56 billion to host migrants at its doorsteps by 2017.

Meanwhile, over 300,000 migrants arrived in Europe by sea in 2015 and over 2,500 migrants drowned, according to the Red Cross. With Russia supporting Syria’s Assad regime and Saudi Arabia sponsoring ISIS while the United States continues to bomb the terrorist group, there is no end in sight for the war and the refugee crisis.

Even the best responses to the refugee crisis are largely emergency measures and not designed to tackle the problem at the source.

For example, the crisis has led to increased donations to Western aid agencies and thousands of refugees have been admitted into places like Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United States for permanent resettlement, allowing them to acquire new skills and carry on with their lives.

Many of these refugees have become lawyers, doctors, nurses, and engineers. Still, this wealth of knowledge largely benefits the host country but does not directly result in a systemic change in the war-ravaged homelands of refugees.

Additionally, the donations to the aid agencies are targeted at refugees already in western countries, and little or no investment is done at the source in preventing conflicts. Moreover, the donations go to organizations dealing with short term emergencies while mostly ignoring organizations established by refugees to serve the long-term needs of the refugee community.

The assumption is that refugees don’t know their own best interests. A look at the boards and senior management of leading American refugee resettlement agencies show that these organizations are not representative of the population they serve.

Leadership at refugee agencies is dominated by upper-class white males who make their millions under the banner of welcoming refugees. In practice, they don’t welcome refugees on their board and top management.

This racially monolithic and unrepresentative culture is best illustrated by the board and senior management of the American evangelical refugee resettlement agency, World Relief.

While this agency has done great work over four decades helping refugees, at the top leadership, refugees are invisible.

In January 2016, America’s evangelical denominations and resettlement agencies hosted a major refugee summit in Wheaton, Illinois. As usual, the top speakers featured were almost all evangelical white male “experts” who have no refugee experience, thus pushing thousands of highly educated refugees aside.

American conservatives are not alone. During his two terms as the Democratic governor of the liberal state of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick had two opportunities to appoint a refugee or immigrant to head the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants. He chose not to appoint any refugee or immigrant in any cabinet position as well as the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and immigrants.

Without diversity on these boards and within senior management teams at refugee bodies, these refugee resettlement agencies are lacking in legitimacy.

This white male-dominated environment sandwiches a corps of middle-level managers who are predominantly white females. At the bottom are the cleaners and janitors who are almost always colored people or refugees.

If these agencies, which intend to serve refugees, are not representative of their constituencies, how can they even solve the root causes of the refugee crisis at the source thousands of miles overseas?

Our world is broken. There will always be warlords and dictators launching strikes at civilians. But there need not always be a one-way unsustainable discriminatory and dysfunctional refugee system. The world needs the input of refugees in solving the refugee crisis.

Organizations serving refugees must be representative of the constituency they serve. Wealthy countries need to increase investment in democracy to prevent dictatorship, instability and political violence that uproots and displaces more refugees worldwide.

Featured photo by Tom Albinson