From the shores of the Mediterranean to the beaches of Malaysia, an intense escalation in international migration threatens the global order.
In the large European countries of Germany, France, and Britain, a rough estimate suggests that around 5 percent of the population is born outside the country where they live. Pressures for more to enter are mounting.
During the first weekend of June, crews rescued 3,400 migrants off the coast of Libya with media reporting a million more waiting to cross the Mediterranean. From 2005 to 2010 almost 9 million people moved to Europe. Elsewhere, 3.5 million moved out of Africa. In Asia, 618,000 left Bangladesh for India, 489,000 went from Indonesia to Malaysia, and 258,000 people left Kazakhstan for Russia. In the United States, more than 1.8 million arrived from Mexico.
The root causes behind the movement of people on such a vast scale are persecution and poverty, and both require coordinated moves by the world’s governments.
Persecution
The governments and citizens of the Middle East and Africa must confront persecution and religious extremism motivated by the belief that a higher power allows believers to brutalize and murder nonbelievers with a perverted sense of pride.
