EDITORIAL: A border crisis of our own
SA’s migration policy is a mess as skilled people struggle to enter and millions of unskilled people flood our borders in search of economic opportunity
A tide of protectionism and fears that foreigners will rob citizens of economic opportunities and threaten their safety is sweeping across the world. While US President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim countries has been met with horror and fury in his own country, the fact is he was elected on exactly this ticket: to shut airport gates and build walls. The reality is that people will inevitably move; whether from persecution or death in the event of conflict or from economic necessity to provide for themselves and their families. And as movement of people becomes easier and the prompts for it more compelling, tensions in countries that receive refugees and immigrants will be rising. Countries such as the US and Germany – where there is wealth, prosperity and opportunity – will always be top of the list. And so will SA – as an island of prosperity in a poor continent also wracked by political conflict, it will always be a destination of...
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