Historical reasons of European immigration tide

Everyone has the instinct to avoid risks. What makes these illegal immigrants willing to risk their lives on an uncertain journey? The answer is poverty and war. The illegal immigrants flooding into EU countries mainly come from some poor and backward countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Europe. In recent years, the number of refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan has greatly increased. I am afraid that this was unexpected when EU countries such as Britain, France and Germany followed the United States to participate in related wars. Some analysts predict that as the situation in the Middle East and North Africa continues to deteriorate, the number of stowaways crossing the Mediterranean this year may reach 500,000. Although Europe has encountered the bottleneck of economic development in recent years, in the eyes of stowaways, it is still a "paradise" with stable society and rich life. It seems that as long as you set foot on the land of Europe, life will change dramatically from now on. In a sense, this is true. Needless to say, a few stowaways who have found formal jobs and obtained legal status through the "Amnesty" policy, more people are not so lucky. In order to make a living, they worked in black jobs from morning till night, carefully avoiding police searches, and never lived a stable life for a moment. But even so, few people are willing to return to their homeland. Almost all stowaways think that no matter how hard this life is, it is better than staying at home.

A large number of illegal immigrants have been a problem that has plagued European countries for many years. For humanitarian reasons, it is not the way to shut out all these illegal immigrants, not to mention that immigration can solve the problem of labor shortage in European countries; However, it is obviously not feasible to legalize all illegal immigrants, and the substantial increase in social costs will overwhelm the government whose finances are already stretched. In recent years, the surge of illegal immigrants has greatly exceeded the expectations of the European Union, which has brought severe challenges to social resources, public security and public order in various countries. With the economic and employment situation depressed, xenophobia in European countries has risen, and violent incidents against immigrants have occurred from time to time. Since illegal immigrants do not have the right to vote in exercising their political rights, their living conditions can hardly become a priority for the government. I am afraid that these illegal immigrants who wander in the "gray zone" have to face the bitterness and helplessness because they have worked hard but have not been accepted and recognized by the society.

In the face of the growing tide of illegal immigration, Europe, which is saturated with acceptance capacity, is obviously unprepared. Countries can only curb it by tightening immigration policies, strengthening border control and cracking down on illegal immigrants. France, Italy, Spain and other countries have signed anti-smuggling agreements with African countries, hoping to crack down on organized smuggling activities through transnational cooperation. Britain and France just signed a cooperation agreement on the 20th of this month, covering maintaining public order, cracking down on snakeheads and providing humanitarian assistance to immigrants. However, most of these agreements focus on police cooperation, which may not fundamentally solve the problem in the context of frequent regional wars.

The tide of illegal immigration has become a problem of the whole EU, but there is no unified understanding among EU countries. The European Union has held several meetings this year to coordinate policies and called on member States to unite on the issue of illegal immigration. However, the nature and severity of illegal immigration problems faced by different countries are different, and in order to safeguard their own interests, there have been differences on immigration quotas, allocation of funds for immigration affairs and other issues. Italy and Greece are located on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, and most illegal immigrants who sneak from the sea will choose these two countries as "springboard" to land in Europe. Italy complains that it has undertaken too many humanitarian relief tasks for illegal immigrants, and Greece, which is deeply mired in the debt crisis, even claims that it cannot cope with the management of illegal immigrants alone. Both countries asked the EU to provide more funds and assistance. However, this appeal has not been fully supported by other EU countries. France, Britain, Germany and other countries think they are the main forces actually receiving refugees.

After all, the power of the EU and its member states is limited. To solve the thorny problem of illegal immigration, we should not only focus on Europe itself, but also focus on the root causes of illegal immigration. Only through the joint efforts of the international community can we continuously improve the current situation of unbalanced global governance and world development and help war-torn countries rebuild peace as soon as possible.