Like it was not expected to finally result to the current situation, the migration issue is now a crisis with diverse and devastating consequences. Migrants reaching the EU border have surpassed 100,000 mark in July and reached 340,000 mark so far this year. The crisis has allegedly resulted to more than 3,000 deaths, with the Mediterranean case being the recent tragedy. While Italy and Greece are struggling to cope, Macedonia has already declared a state of emergency!
But why is International Migration now a crisis, at least in Europe?
The migration crisis in Europe can be traced to migrants from developing countries that are either; grappling with economic problems and harsh living standards or experiencing conflicts. Many of these migrants in search for ‘a better life’ while others are fleeing from war and persecution. These countries include Eritrea, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Algeria and Syria.
Managing these numbers has proved difficult due to a number of reasons on the receiving states side. These are; a broken European Union migration system, failure to put in place updated security measures to deal with illegal immigrants as well as the Schengen Agreement that made Europe a border-less area, a factor that should be a wakeup call to newly integrating states or regions .
An analytical look at increased Migration, especially the South-North migration can be zeroed in to a desire to have a ‘better life’ due to widening awareness of opportunities through advanced communication.
To note, the very poorest people are the most affected by global inequalities and are desperate to move under which ever means and circumstances. They’ll take any risk. Nothing will pull them back. They got nothing to lose after all.
The other problem is that there are far more unemployed or under-employed people in the poor world, sorry to call it that but it is, than the number of jobs available in the segmented level markets of the developed economy. Britain’s Interior Minister Theresa May is on record saying that 4 out of 10 migrants entered the UK with no job secured for them. That number must have increased since last year.
While there is a push to have a single European Policy on Asylum and migration, research has indicated that it is difficult to disrupt momentum associated with migration networks through policy. There is more to be done
In fact, in the recent past, there has been an expansion on rights and entitlements that allow certain people i.e. asylum seekers, refugees, to cross borders and stay abroad. Many more countries have signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention; one that guarantees protection and assistance outside their country of origin.
The Migration Industry
Migration has formed an industry, a business just like any other business that stands to make commercial gains.
There are labor recruiters, migration and refugee Lawyers, Travel agents, Brokers, Housing agents, Remittance agencies as well as migration and custom officials.
What is legal has no issues, what is a problem is the illegitimate part of the migration industry responsible for human trafficking and smuggling. It is without doubt that there are millions of dollars profits being made in the industry, unaccounted for and that these activities add on the momentum of illegal international migration, which has somewhat contributed to the current crisis.
I would admit that it is difficult to come up with effective policies on migration due to its increased complexity, unless collectively. It is also unfortunate that few if any of the major labour exporting countries publish accurate records on the number of international migrants they produce. They need to play their part by well structuring labour export.
Much of the amounts in remittances, unaccounted for, could be used to finance other illegal immigrants, facilitate their housing , job searching and basically, providing each others social and economic assistance to ‘stabilize’. You can’t blame us Africans, we got to look out for our brother!
To solve the crisis, EU member states plan to share the burden and each take a share of the migrants. France has promised to take 24,000 over two years while Britain has promised to take 20,000 Syrian refugees. But this, in my opinion is not a long-term solution. That solution will involve more than the EU. We need to address this from the source. Who are we? We the world, the concerned parties.
As countries develop, migration especially those seeking better lives, reduces. Unfortunately though, many countries in the South are developing at a painfully slow rate. Nevertheless, there is a need for governments in the South to intensify economic growth and development to create employment and improve living standards. This to an extent will discourage illegal international migration. We have to take away the incentive to undertake the dangerous journey to Europe to find a better life in the home countries.
Europe can assist in this by opening up their agricultural markets for produce from Africa.
As Guy Verhofstadt, President ALDE Group put it, “As long as life is dangerous and miserable in Africa and peace is nowhere in sight like in Syria, people will try come to Europe. It is our duty to help to create the conditions to have a better life at home.” It should be noted that South-North migration pattern has adverse economic impacts on the South.
By cooperating more, and the word here is cooperate, in peacekeeping efforts and by streamlining development, it will be easy to solve ongoing conflicts in Syria and other states experiencing civil wars. This is opposed to what some European companies are accused of, part-funding conflicts in Central Republic by entering into timber deals with militia groups.This definitely reduces refugees and asylum seekers a big deal.
It is way better than just putting up walls and return and readmission mechanisms.