At the peak of the surge in 2015, more than a million\nmigrants made the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean, attempting to\nreach Europe. The scenes of people crowded into unseaworthy boats in their\neffort to make it to Europe were heartbreaking. The loss of countless lives\nalong the way was tragic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The logical assumption was that only extreme desperation \u2013 grinding poverty, extreme violence, or brutal government oppression \u2013 could drive people to make such a perilous journey. That assumption, however, is largely incorrect according to a new report, Scaling Fences<\/a>, <\/em>by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). <\/p>\n\n\n\n UNDP researchers interviewed nearly 2,000 migrants from 39\nAfrican nations who are living in 13 EU nations. Based on the accounts of the\nmigrants, UNDP reports that the motivation for making the journey across the\nMediterranean was \u201cnot for asylum or protection-related reasons,\u201d although most\nof the people arriving on European shores requested asylum. Nor was the impetus\na search for jobs, per se. \u201cAround 58 per cent were either employed or in\nschool at the time of their departure, with the majority of those working,\nearning competitive wages,\u201d states the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality what the migrants were seeking were better<\/em> wages, which they believed would\nbe available to them if they could reach Europe. Not mentioned in the report,\nbut no doubt another important factor that drove the 2015 surge (and continues\nto attract dangerous trans-Mediterranean migration), was German Chancellor\nAngela Merkel\u2019s declaration that Europe\u2019s doors were open to anyone who wanted\nto enter an asylum claim, however specious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In many ways, the UNDP report affirms an ironic, but\nwell-established phenomenon that economic development in sending countries, and\nthe rise of large segments of their populations from extreme poverty to\nrelative poverty (i.e. relative to the prosperity of the countries migrants are\nattempting to reach) can lead to an exodus of those who have managed to climb\nout of destitution. Large-scale migration is often a consequence of progress-impeding\ncorruption and malfeasance on the part of the governments of sending nations,\nor understandable impatience on the part of young people in those countries to\nallow the long arc of economic development to play out. The exodus of educated,\nupwardly mobile migrants, and the growing reliance of those left behind on\nremittances, further impedes the economic development and government reforms\nthat are necessary to make those countries attractive places to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The UNDP report should also serve as cautionary tale to our own government. The phenomenon of large-scale migration in our own hemisphere \u2013 and the tendency of well-intended people to view dangerous treks as a sign of extreme desperation \u2013 is not always what it may appear to be. And, as Europe has taken steps to stem the flow of people across the Mediterranean, Merkel-like policies that allow people to exploit our asylum laws are already showing signs of convincing migrants to cross the Atlantic<\/a> and join the flow of Central American migrants seeking a short cut to greater economic prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the peak of the surge in 2015, more than a million migrants made the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean, attempting to reach Europe. The scenes of people crowded into unseaworthy boats in their effort to make it to Europe were heartbreaking. The loss of countless lives along the way was tragic. The logical assumption<\/p>\n