In 2013 there were 232 million people living outside their country of origin. That was 3.2% of the world population. It isn't a lot.
Homo Erectus left Africa for the first time 1.8 million years ago. Homo Sapiens left 125,000 years ago, but returned. They left again 75,000 ago. Humans have always migrated. We were nomads with no borders other than physical ones of landscape for a very long time. We moved to better hunting grounds & better pastures. We settled. We became tribes.
The geographical country borders we now recognise are relatively recent, artificial, political constructs. Many are arbitrary lines drawn on maps, often after conflict. Numerous borders have changed many times over the years. It is therefore arguable that our rights pertaining to our national borders are tenuous at best. We do not own our country of origin, or have exclusive rights to it. We are custodians of land. We actually don't own anything in the sense that we can't take anything with us when we die.
People leave their homeland for a variety of reasons. They look for better economic & social opportunities. Many are fleeing crises - conflict, violence, persecution & natural disasters for example. They undertake extremely dangerous journeys to escape & find something better. What would we have them do? Stay put in misery and danger and die?
Almost half of all migrants are women. Many are of child bearing age. Many are the victims of human traffiking. Are we going to deny them sanctuary?
This is a global problem & it will need international planning to resolve the many complex issues. Most of the causal factors are "man" made. The seeds of the problems were sown by politics and religion. The vast majority of politicians are men. They need to stop posturing & really start to tackle this growing 21st century migration. There seems to be a worrying shortage of empathy & compassion in today's political leaders. They are too concerned about the effect on their next election.
Not one single human being worth the name can wash their hands of this situation. We all have to have the will to help people far less fortunate than we are. We can't put our heads in the sand or we will reap the consequences.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations
http://www.unfpa.org/migration
No comments:
Post a Comment