Population

Migration

The migrant problem is a horrendously complex one that requires clear thought and less emotion.

On one front it is a clear humanitarian problem. There are poor people desperate to escape war, persecution and poverty. They need helping. In the short term something has to be done and done quickly. We simply cannot sit back and allow people to suffer. That is callous.

On the other side is a clash of cultures, large numbers, burgeoning populations and differing values.

There are a number of reasons why we have this situation:

1. There are terrible wars being waged all over the world – Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya …… People are fleeing the death, mayhem and destruction. The economies are devastated. They have no future. A number of these wars have been fuelled and instigated by the West because of terrorism? Oil? Or strategic needs?
2. There is a rise of extremist, fanatical religious strands of Islam. These groups – Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, ISIS and tens more – follow an interpretation of Islam that is extreme. They wish to impose their version of Islam on everyone – ban music, insist on Burqas, destroy all other culture and impose sharia law etc. etc. They have flourished in the vacuum created by the chaos following the wars. They use the West, who they foolishly describe as Crusaders, as scapegoats. They are systematically killing (in the most savage manner), looting and destroying. Their intolerance and persecution has led to millions seeking refuge.
3. There is an overpopulation crisis. In many of these countries there has been a population explosion resulting in millions of extra people with no work, no future and living in extreme poverty. These huge numbers cannot be supported in their own countries.
4. There is an economic crisis. The West has enjoyed a standard of life that is far superior to that enjoyed elsewhere. The world markets have been organised and run for the benefit of Western economies. We are rich and the Third World is extremely poor. With the advent of computers this has now become obvious to those in Third World countries. They want to have the benefits of living in the West with its employment, salaries and life-style.
5. There is a lot of oil money floating around which is being used to fund Islamic extremism and destabilise the world.
6. There are a lot of cynical selfish exploiters who are looking to make money out of the chaos. They are charging to take migrants to Europe, selling arms to all sides and generally looking to make a killing (literally make a killing).
7. There are the politicians looking to destabilise and gain advantage by turning faction against faction.
8. There are religious factions bred on long-established racism – Jews and Arabs, Sunni and Shia, Islam and Christian. The hatred is centuries old and fuelled by the Palestinian situation, poverty, wars, overpopulation, unemployment and economic depression.
9. There is the added spice of Russia trying to exert power and using the various crises to exploit its conflict with the West. Putin is trying to be the big, tough guy. Russian pride is at stake.

The West is proving inept at dealing with all this and far from unified. We need some strong leadership and clear strategy.

What the West is concerned about

1. A huge input of people into European countries requiring infrastructure – housing, schools, jobs, health care etc. This is happening at a time of austerity when there is strain on these services.
2. The input of a large number of people who do not support the ethos of the West. They are largely Muslim and may not support tolerance, freedom, secularism, democracy and respect the customs of the host countries. They are religious and may support Sharia law, religious schools, Madrassas, Mosques and not integrate with the host country. People are concerned that they will displace the host culture.
3. The immigrant families tend to have more children which increase the concerns of the above.
4. Along with genuine migrants terrorist fanatics may come into the country putting everyone here at risk.
5. Every country has its national culture; with large enclaves of immigrants this identity is under threat, particularly if they do not integrate. Many are dismayed at the number of people who do not speak the language, who live in insular communities and the number of Mosques springing up all over.

The irony is that the West, with its low birth rates, needs immigration. They just do not want erosion or usurping of their ethos.

We fought hard to escape from the strangle-hold of theocracy. We do not want to slip back into that again. We see the stultifying effect it has had on the Arab States. We want to remain free, have democracy and the right to chose. We want tolerance, fairness and our own culture. We want religion to be a personal choice not an imposition.

The other irony is that the immigrants are in danger of destroying the very thing they have come for – the freedom and tolerance.

The Solutions

1. We have to demonstrate that we have compassion and moral integrity by caring for these displaced people. We cannot allow them to drown or keep them in detestable camps. They need interim housing, processing and assimilating.
2. We should manage their entry to the West so that fanatics are identified and weeded out.
3. Diplomatic pressure should be brought to bear to end the wars. The West needs to become more unified and focussed.
4. The Palestinian situation has been fuelling much of the radicalisation and hatred and needs to be resolved. Pressure should be brought to bear on all parties.
5. The funding of ISIS and other fanatic religious savages needs to be tracked down and stopped. Likewise internet recruitment.
6. There needs to be a global, unified response to tackle religious fundamentalism led by the Arab States. The West has to put pressure on them to do this. ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and the rest need to be utterly discredited and defeated.
7. The economic gulf between rich and poor countries needs to be bridged so that everyone becomes entitled to a job, a fair wage, fair conditions, pensions and health care.
8. We need to integrate people living in Britain so that they subscribe to the values we have as a nation. We have a long history of fighting for social justice and equality.
9. We need to address the drastic overpopulation crisis that is destroying the wilderness, forests and nature, over-fishing, butchering wild-life and leading to poverty, unemployment and economic disaster. This is what is fuelling the migration problem.
10. We need to dump the whole oil economy and move right over to renewables. This will immediately dry up all the funding for the militant savages of ISIS and the rest.
11. We need to create a rapprochement with Russia and China to tackle radicalism on a unified front.

Well those are my procrastinations. I suppose some of them are controversial. But I think they need bringing out into the open and discussing. I consider myself a caring, tolerant person but I am intolerant of intolerance and I hate violence, indoctrination and fundamentalism. I am open to debate. I can’t see a solution that gets to the root causes coming any time soon. But unless someone starts addressing the underlying issues I think this is all going to end badly.

What do you think?