As one might expect, during a war, misunderstandings are often driven by interested parties. In the case of Syrian refugees in Europe a US-based organisation called 'The Syria Campaign' has helped drive some of these, including a claim that most of the refugees are 'Fleeing Assad'. 'The Syria Campaign' is a Wall Street Public Relations creation and one of several interlocked, US-based groups (Avaaz, Purpose, the White Helmets) which have campaigned for a Libyan-style 'no fly zone' in Syria. That is, they work for NATO intervention on the side of the jihadist groups (see Sterling 2015). In any case, a careful look at the evidence allows us to see through this 'refugees fleeing Assad' scam.
The Syria Campaign (2015) commissioned a poll in Germany which was apparently carried out by German academic Heiko Giebler. In it, 889 Syrian refugees were said to have been interviewed in Berlin, Hanover, Bremen, Leipzig and Eisenhüttenstadt. Candidates 'were approached on entering or leaving registration centers'.
However the survey does not specify how sampling choices were made (TSC 2015). This is important because sampling error can easily undermine the representative nature of a poll. Indeed if there is no sampling error, as in this case,
there is no way to assert to what extent the survey represents a broader population. The results are then almost useless, except as anecdotes.
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