Economic disparity will always drive demand for migration - Yorkshire Post Letters

Gordon Lawrence’s recent letter on the ECHR prompted in me the need to write a reply for the simple reason that I disagreed with most of what he wrote.

So far, so good; but Mr Lawrence is clearly very angry about something, and it is very difficult to offer calm responses to anger, especially as the root cause of the anger was not entirely clear.

Is he cross that his hero’s name has been associated with the current crisis of immigration; does he disagree with the policy of allowing anyone at all to come to our shores, or is he simply mad that this is a “foreign quango” (as he puts it) and we didn’t think of it first, before the hated Europeans?

I wonder if Mr Lawrence distinguishes between offering asylum to people in genuine fear of their lives and what has come to be called ‘economic migration’, or whether he lumps all refugees together; I would hope that he supports the UN principle covering the former.

As for the latter – that needs to be better understood and analysed than at present.

What are referred to as the ‘Global North’ and the ‘Global South’ differ principally in the economic standards of the people who respectively live there.

The differences are historic, and have their roots in the empire-making policies of all the countries of Europe over the past few centuries.

All the nations of the North sent out explorers, missionaries, traders and armies whose overall purpose was to gather the riches of the rest of the world for the benefit of Europe.

Formerly, this was done by simple theft, both of people (slaves) and of assets, but in the modern world, we are continuing the process by having our material goods manufactured in places that pay low wages, to be sold where the wages are higher.

This increases profits, but it also transfers value from poor countries to rich countries.

Elon Musk stands to receive $1tn if he rakes in $8.5tn for Tesla; will he set up his necessary new factories in the high-unemployment Eastern United States – Trump promised new coal mines and steel mills! – or will he go to the cheap, poor world? No prizes for guessing.

With the ubiquitous internet of modern days, this growing economic disparity is apparent to anyone with a mobile phone, and the bold, ambitious young people of the poor world want their share – and why not?

When our British young people announce their intentions to travel overseas on sabbaticals, to gain experiences and accumulate a bit of a nest egg, we praise their enterprise and courage. Why don’t the same principles apply to brave young people who want to come here?

The economics involved in this letter are not at all complex, they are simple arithmetic, and we need to understand this.

For so long as there is clear disparity and for so long as we increase and encourage that disparity, there will be thousands who will want their share of it.