The Great Migrations

The great migrations have accelerated their pace. The influx of people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan (Afghanistan? Really?) are overwhelming the nations of Europe and those nations are not universally welcoming those refugees. Hungary for instance is acting like one of the old Soviet bloc nations which is, of course, what it is. On the positive side, notice that there is no great migration into Russia which should at least show that the democratic nations are more desirable and the Russian holds no attraction to those trying to escape their desperate straits.

Over the weeks they have kept coming. Desperate people who packed up their lives and families with what they could carry and risked great peril crossing from Asia into Europe with many dying in the sea, victims of its whims and their rickety crafts. One has to wonder what would motivate them to risk such danger and loss of life. Why would they pack their children onto boats and float off to somewhere they have never been and have no way of knowing? Did they do so with the expectation that all they had heard of the prosperous West would await them? Have their hopes and dreams been dashed against the ground where they have been rejected?

And what about those nations, small European nations, that have been inundated with the refugees who have brought nothing with them with which to sustain themselves? How can they be expected to meet the crushing demand of the hordes from their limited resources? What of the fear they hold of Islamic people gushing into their lands with enmity for the West in their hearts? How are they to react?

News reports are that it is approximately 120,000 people. Not a million, not ten million. A mere 120,000 but it presages the times to come. By contrast the United States in 2012 had about 40 million inhabitants who were not born here. A little more than half had been naturalized and about 11 million are here illegally. Europe has a population of about 750 million people and the U.S. has about 350 million.

The point is that these are not just immigrants looking for a better life and deciding to give it a go in the Western nations. This is a migration of people fleeing poverty, famine, war, death and destruction and the certain death that awaits them if they do not move. Here in the United States we have forgotten what that is like even though it was just that mindset that led to the great migrations of the Irish, Germans and Eastern European populations. All we can think of is trying to hold onto what we've got and building fences, like Hungary, to keep hungry people out. Or the tongue in cheek (or is it) idea of constructing a moat on the border with Mexico and filling it with alligators. So much of our effort is focused on keeping people out that we can't get a clear view of what the possibilities can be of accepting them and allowing them to revitalize our own society. When I look at the refugees in Europe and the way they are being treated with violence and deprivation I can't help but wonder what kind of impression that will leave on their experience in their new homes. Will they be good citizens or will they be dissidents who will attempt to recreate their homeland in their new home?

Migrations have occurred many times over the millennia. They are no more able to be stopped than the great migrations of Africa or the bison and caribou of North America. They simply are and our sights should be set on how we deal with it and use it to our advantage. The migrants from the Middle East will continue to come as long as the living conditions where they come from prevent the basics of civilized living. The migrants from Mexico and Central and South America will continue until opportunity where they come from is enough to give them a chance to stay home. Migrations have always brought turmoil because they upset the status quo and people don't like that. However, out of that turmoil a new status is created and it is vibrant with possibility where the old one has gone stale. Inevitably there is a cultural change and we do love to hang onto our cultures but it is not the end of the world. We should redouble our efforts to instill in our migrants the values that we hold dear so they can learn them and value them as we do. Should we meet them with gun and club that is the way that we will be met and that is the value system they will learn and peace and prosperity will be denied. It is the same way in Europe and the concentration of migrants is destabilizing but it demands that governments stretch themselves to bring order out of the chaos.

 

When we listen to our politicians speak of what to do about the migration the focus seems to be on how we can stop it and how we can get rid of those intruders who are upsetting the apple cart. In the United States the migrants are meeting a need for labor that is needed, especially in the agricultural industries. If they are legal they pay taxes and support our economic system, if they are illegal it is likely they do not. For now, our migration in the United States has leveled off. It is nowhere near what those who live by fear would have us believe. Now our task is to assimilate them into our great experiment. That is the task facing Europe also.

It should be noted that the world the migrants are moving to is one where democracy prevails. That should tell us something about the people and give strength to the notion that all people want is the freedom to live and the necessities to provide a life for their families. Some day when democracy is the law in their lands of origin there will be no need to migrate.

My take is this. The warring we see in the Middle East and other areas is just an expression of the deeper desire for freedom. It is the rejection of the existing totalitarian governments that has given rise to religious fanaticism. It is a war that we cannot win by imposing domination because the human spirit is indomitable and yearns for freedom. Now, after 100 years of imposing domination, there are no good or easy solutions.