The suburbs of Grenoble, France, were the center of the attention when unemployed teens attacked some policemen in July. They were burning cars and transforming the neighborhood in a battlefield. The state of Arizona, USA, recently enacted a law that allows policemen to inquire citizens about the regularity of their situation of immigrants and to take action if they are illegal.
So there are a lot of physical and psychological walls that try to serve as barriers to immigration. Would they work?
I don’t think so; not at all. My thesis is that people try to survive better where they can, and if to live better they have to leave behind a poor and low-expectation country and then they live on the crumbs that the developed country provides, they will do that. The current development model enables such differences. So for a long-term solution of the problem, it is necessary to change the model, that is, to change the expectations of the people that live in the countries which are origin of such movement.
Nowadays the economic crisis exacerbated the felling against immigration. In general, the majority of people are against it and even the moderate political parties are at least in silence to avoid losing votes.
On the other hand, the number of immigrants and descendants are growing.
As we can see in the following table, taking the USA as example, in the last three decades there was an effective growing of immigration.
Immigration numbers
* Projections and graph courtesy Population Environment Balance, Sources: U.S. Census Bureau2; Statistical Yearbook40, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
Average 195,000 per year from 1921-1970
It is interesting to see how this plays out in the real world. According to journalist Roy Beck, in California it is necessary to construct a new classroom every hour of the day, 24 hours per day 365 days of the year to accommodate immigrant children. The financial cost is borne by native households, who according to a National Academy of Science report, pay an additional $1200 per year in taxes because of mass immigration. Even so, the primary concern to environmentalists and Sierra Club members is the tremendous environmental impact that will be incurred as a consequence of continued U.S. population growth. (Source: Wikipedia)
Yes, it is impossible to absorb the number of excluded on the world through immigration.
80% of the natural resources are spent by 20% of population of the world, and not to mention the shame of exploitation of resources of less developed countries.
In conclusion, we need a new economic order. A new economy that solves the existing economical inequalities and correlated problems such as waste of energy and pollution
It is very difficult to think how to make it. Perhaps the poor countries together outside of the arranged game of UN will take some kind of action.
For sure the design of new solutions with the Capitalism as we know it today is impossible. A lesson that has to be taken from developed countries. Something new has to be thought and put to work changing selfishness for sharing and death for life.
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