The debate in the National Assembly on the law that aims to regulate the right of asylum and immigration has brought to light a problem that only idealists think can be addressed with sentimentality, while morally unscrupulous people use it for low political purposes.
It is impossible to deny the enormous challenge of immigration and the dizzying reality that stems from it: the world population has more than doubled in 50 years and will increase by another 50% by the end of the century.
But paradoxically, everyone, from opposing positions, agrees: the problem must be resolved at its source, by developing the economies of the countries from which the migrants primarily originate.
However, when it comes to implementing this supposed will, action falters!
This is precisely why the figure of the amount of money transfers from emigrants to their countries of origin, published by the World Bank, is crucial.
In 2017, immigrants sent back $466 billion to their homelands. That is a significant amount.
How significant? It is three times the total of public development aid given by rich (Northern) countries to developing (Southern) countries, which amounts to $150 billion per year.
This means that migrants are by far the primary contributors to financing the economies of their countries of origin, the only sustainable way to stabilize the populations on site.
In the face of this demonstration of pusillanimity, human barriers in the Alps, beyond showing the stupidity of their creators, are likely to merely provoke a smile!
In fact, at this rate, we might as well wall up the Alps.
