Deploring the hardening of immigration policies, particularly in European countries, at a time when new factors linked to climatic change have increased the numbers of those needing to leave their countries, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently underlined how difficult it was today to tell ’a climate refugee from an economic one, a forced exodus from a chosen migration.’ At the same time, Jacques Barrot, European commissioner responsible for immigration, has backed a policy which avoids ’men and women fleeing poverty or war becoming victims of smugglers or dramatically losing their lives as they desperately try to get into Europe.’ These are concerns that the latest United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report appears to echo, calling as it does for a ’lifting’ of migratory barriers. ’There is no proof that immigration has a negative effect on economies, labour markets or budgets, whereas the benefits in fields like social diversity and the capacity for innovation are evident’, the UNDP experts add.
It is high time to lift barriers.
[...]