As Planetary CFO, I say let everyone come in who wants to. They will add to the pressure to change the conditions they are fleeing from in the countries they have left.
A part of this picture is about basic safety, freedom and escape from poverty, and who among us would respond any differently from these migrants if we were in daily fear of physical trauma, hunger and death.
But some of it is about a lack of a consistent global safety net. If the international community established something similar to the UK Welfare State in every country of the World, and a basic living wage entitlement for every global citizen, then pressure to migrate would be reduced. This model has worked, in the main, in developed, stable countries. So why not in every country.
And how is the cost of a global safety net to be met? In the same way developed countries pay for theirs – through taxation. The EU already has a model to draw inspiration from, in the shape of measures such as the way the European Union works, through contributions each country makes, to pay for mechanisms such as the Common Agricultural Policy.
And the numbers of migrants will be swelled by climate migrants as the now all but inevitable global warming progresses. Even if we manage to keep the post-industrial temperature change under 2 degrees, which is an ambitious ceiling, there will be some changes that will result in not just thousands, but many millions of people migrating North from the Global South. Imagine such numbers trying to get to Europe, making the current flow seem like a tiny trickle.
And with the shifting to new norms of climate in each region, who’s to say that you or I (or our descendants) might not be in the next wave of migrants, if our home regions become effectively uninhabitable through climate change. Put yourselves in the shoes of the current migrants for a moment. Then reflect.