Reading
this story from the BBC:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by BBC News
Hundreds of immigrants have tried to break through the border fences around the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa, police sources say.
At least 18 people - both police and immigrants - were injured.
About 100 people managed to break through into Spanish territory, where they are being questioned.
Melilla and nearby Ceuta are seen as stepping stones to Europe by African immigrants. Spain is doubling the height of the fences around Melilla.
Three immigrants have died since August trying to enter Melilla...snip
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So people are risking life and limb to get into Europe (or out of Africa) and I suppose they may also be doing the same thing over the Mexican border into the US, and over countless other borders between rich nations and poor ones.
Water flows from high ground to low ground, and people, it seems, flow from areas of less development into areas of more development. Is it possible to stop, or is it a powerful natural phenomenon like Niagara Falls, or New Orleans?
If it is possible to stop then how? And would it be economically feasible?
And if it's not possible/feasible, then how can we best secure ourselves against future problems?
Well, assuming the analogy of water flowing from higher, to lower ground, we can either make ourselves poorer, thus making our countries less attractive to outsiders, or we can help to develop and enrichen those other countries, in order to raise the standards of living to a point where people are no longer willing to risk their lives in hopping the border.
So my summary points are: Aren't massed illegal immigration attempts like this symptomatic of the depth of inequality between the countries of the world, and is it not in the West's interests to ease the disparity? Failure to do so will mean building higher walls, and employing more heavily armed guards along our borders in order to keep the desperate foreigners off our lands.
Is that how we want to live?