Migration: why walls never work the way they promise

No one packs up and abandons their home, their language, and the graves of their ancestors because life is good. Migration is always a symptom, never the disease. And as long as we treat the symptom with walls, the disease remains.

Walls treat the symptom, not the cause

A wall, a visa, a patrol — an attempt to stop water without asking why it flows. History is clear: wherever there is a difference in pressure — between poverty and hope, war and peace — the flow finds a way around, however costly and dangerous. A wall raises the price of the journey and fills the smugglers’ pockets, but it rarely changes the decision to leave.

What actually keeps people home

It is not a fence that keeps a person in place, but a reason to stay: work, safety, a future for the children, the sense of being respected at home. The countries that stopped losing people did it not with fences but by making home a place there was no need to flee. And the flip side: a country that can hold its own and draw in others’ talent wins a quiet but decisive competition for people.

“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”
— Warsan Shire

My opinion: arguing over whether to “let them in” is arguing about the consequence. The real question is different: what makes a place one that people flee — and what makes a place one they long to return to. People vote with their feet long before they vote at the ballot box.