Einwanderung (Immigration)

As many of you probably know, a new law was recently enforced changing the EU Immigration Policy. Here you can find an interesting Letter from the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, on the subject. You can ignore the petition, as I did, since it won't change anything anymore. Since I am a legal immigrant one could say that this change of laws doesn't affect me. However, as an European Citizen, even if only temporarily, I can't ignore the meaning of this change to society not only here but worldwide.

Globalization is not working as it was supposed to. Many regions of the world keep getting poorer while others keep getting richer. However, I don't blame the concept of globalisation, since I believe that some people are distorting it and corrupting it and these people are responsible for its failure. The restriction of immigration and the power to "hunt down" illegal immigrants is one of these distortions, and a very dangerous one. In countries where people are disappointed, the foreigners became the best scapegoats not only for extremist groups, but also the government. In the USA the government uses Terrorism to justify controlling who can enter the country. Here in Europe the reasons aren't even masked, as many people complain openly about the foreigners as if they were the cause of all the problems their countries are facing. Pair this up with some nationalism and political opportunism, and you have a timebomb in your hands.

How could globalisation work without open borders? The whole idea of turning the world into a market is that those who have cheap labour to offer can get richer through their work and those who have the knowledge can help improve the conditions in underdeveloped countries. It's an obvious interchange that aims to make the world more homogeneous and increase the competitivity and quality in all industries. If people in Germany don't have many kids and they need workers, why can't they get some from Africa, where people are desperate for the working conditions they could get here? If education is weaker in Brazil, why can't brazilian students come to Germany and learn how to improve the market in their home country? In the end, don't we all benefit from it?

The critical point is very simple: if everybody wins, somebody loses. Or at least it looks like that. Europeans and americans had the chance to rule over the world with such a dominance that allowed them to have a non-sustainable luxurious life for a long time. And now they think they are permanently entitled to that. However, if globalisation works properly, the tendency is that everybody will have to settle down for a "good" life, not a luxurious one. It's impossible that the whole world can have the same standards as the europeans; the world doesn't have enough resources. Instead of accepting that and starting to support the development of the poorer countries, so that the whole world could be in a decent situation, many people are supporting the opposite: closing down the borders, going to war and trying to keep an unrealistic lifestyle no matter what.

This is something I really can't understand clearly. What kind of reward can be more fullfilling than the thought that most people in the world have a good life? How can someone want to keep a fortune of billions of dollars instead of having the peace of mind of knowing that nobody worldwide is dying of hunger? Are we that spoiled and selfish? Or simply too ignorant to realize what matters the most? Isn't it easy to see that most progress is made by people who have talent, and this talent is wasted everytime a kid can't go to school? Isn't it easy to see that the only way to fight the environmental crisis is if all the countries have enough resources to care for their pollution? Can't we see that fundamentalism and terrorism would vanish if people had access to a proper cultural background?

I understand that illegal immigrants are a problem for the countries here. I just don't agree with the approach to it. Instead of increasing punishment, why can't we invest on educating and regularizing these people? More than the social system, Europe has something much more valuable to offer: its culture and history, that everybody should be aware of. If the foreigners who come to Europe don't "behave" as they should, it's because they lack the cultural background and the education that turns the european citizens into what allows them to support the benefits they fought so long for. Instead of trying to push the immigrants away, Europe should welcome them with proper education and adaptation programs, to make them understand the society and contribute actively to it. I am sure the vast majority of them would be glad to do so. With the proper clarification, nobody would think that the social benefits here happen by magic and they would help keeping them a reality.

It's also crucial to make the europeans understand the value of the immigrant and how important it is for them to feel home. Those who are discriminated here end up feeling frustrated and revolted and can hardly care for a society who rejects them. This results in isolation and cultural conflict that doesn't make the foreigners stop coming to europe, it just makes them feel uncomfortable and angry. It's too naive to think that you can prevent poor people from looking for a better life. If you treat them badly, they will just hate you instead of respect you, and will disobey the laws instead of trying to understand them. Do the europeans really prefer to be hated for their indifference instead of admired for all the valuable lessons they have to teach? Haven't the USA already shown how dangerous this posture can be, burying all the fundamental teachings of their founding fathers with an inconstitutional and manipulative government that prefers to hunt down people and find scapegoats instead of investing in education and progress for the rest of the world?

I hope the European people don't fall into this trap of taking the seemingly "easy way out" and keep trying to punish the immigrants. If there are a lot of illegal immigrants in Europe, it's only Europe's fault for not being careful enough to make people care for their laws. If they want to make things right, they better realize that there is no way to stop immigration, only make it work properly so that everybody can profit from it. This should be a priority for every government here. I hope they realize this before it's too late.