Just imagine. Rather than a rich and prosperous nation, you were born in Ethiopia, Niger, Central African Republic or Haiti. You are largely uneducated and unskilled due to painful social and economic realities. Living this way was not your choice. In order to survive, dropping out of school at age 12 was simply necessary. Someone had to work to put food on the table..
Three decades of backbreaking work later, you are now middle-aged and married with two kids. When you were in your teens, you had all the hope in the world that things would be better by leading an honest life and working hard. Several years ago, your dream seemed to be coming true. A little extra money allowed you to send your daughter (Samantha, age 10) to a few English lessons at a local school. You were also able to buy some badly needed new clothes for her little brother (Oumar, age 8). That was five long years ago. Since the catastrophic event, which came in the form of a civil war, a severe economic downturn or a natural disaster (or a combination thereof), you and your spouse have found little work. As a result, the children sometimes do not have enough to eat. As for you and your spouse, you always go to bed hungry. It is very simple. Your kids represent everything good about life. Their innocence, their creativity and their silly jokes are your solace and refuge from a world often steeped in self-interest and cynicism. They are the embodiment of your hope - and the hope of the world.
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Five years ago, you entertained ideas of sending at least one child to a small college or vocational school. Now, your children (ages 15 and 13) are collecting aluminum cans after school to earn grocery money. Things are getting worse. Remaining in your native land under these dire circumstances will produce only one outcome for your children - entrenched poverty. As a parent, you cannot allow this to happen. Hence, one evening, you and your spouse sit down privately to discuss the options available for a better life. There is only one feasible course of action - paying a trafficker $150 (5 months pay) to have you and your family smuggled into Italy. If you manage to slip into the boot of Europe, you will have a chance to relocate and find work in a stable country with jobs, health care and a largely free education system. Through illegal immigration, the possibility of a brighter future still exists for you, your spouse and your children. Essentially, you are not making a choice. The choice has already been made for you.
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Tens of millions of families consider leaving their native countries everyday to seek refuge in a nation devoid of war and poverty. It is a phenomenon in every corner of the world. Many policymakers treat the problem, which some believe to be 'intractable', by tightening up border controls and passing new laws to crackdown on these uninvited guests. This approach, however, is short-sighted and ultimately lacks the empathy and considered judgment to solve what only seems to be a vexing problem.
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Although complicated, the issue of illegal immigration is neither intractable nor insoluble. The decision to live and work in another country is largely a matter of economics. If Western nations truly wish to gain control of their borders and stem the tide of ('illegal') mass migration, then governments and corporations will have to unite in a massive investment effort into building and rebuilding the infrastructures of the poorest countries in the world. A comprehensive plan would have to include the construction of viable roads, bridges, sewage systems, schools and transportation lines. Large numbers of volunteers from around the world would also be needed to help reconstruct these countries as cost-effectively as possible.
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This humanitarian effort would not only eliminate the principle cause of illegal immigration, but it would also be profitable in the long run to Western nations as new middle-classes emerge in Africa and elsewhere to buy products from the US and Europe. If the Marshall Plan worked in Europe, it can work again in Africa and Haiti.
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Western nations can neither ethically nor economically allow its citizens to continue leading middle-class lives - paying $60 a month for cable TV - only to watch pictures of Congolese, who earn roughly $300 per year, starve in the streets.
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Living in poverty and becoming an 'illegal' immigrant in another country is no one's choice. If the people of the West take action now, this egregious choice can be eliminated by the 22nd century.
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(Photo: A boat carrying hopeful African immigrants to Europe)
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J Roquen