As Italy struggles with the mass migration of Libyans and Tunisians following the Earthquakes, flooding and political instability in Northern Africa over the last two weeks, and as the United States continues to see record numbers of migrants at the Southern border from Central America, we have to wake up.
By we, I mean the privileged residents of developed countries which will be the destinations for the coming waves of migrants from the under-developed countries. And by wake up, I mean we must come to terms with the fact that the scale of the coming migrations will likely be a log function greater than what we have sen before.
Should we allow the right wingers to fence our countries off, condemning the migrants to suffering and/or death? Or should we attempt to make plans to accommodate some or all of these migrants?
Sadly, I fear that most of Europe and most of the United States would rather wall ourselves off to protect our own and to vilify the other. Such is our tradition, and our shame.
Maybe when they are forces to migrate themselves, they will change their minds.