Migration migraine

In a famous passage of Genesis, God tells Abram to "go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." At 75 years old, Abram goes on a long and difficult journey to the new land, where he is briskly thrown into an immigration centre and threatened with deportation to Rwanda.¹

Of course, that is not the real story you would read in the pages of the Book of GenesisThe first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. , but it is what the biblical figure might face trying to cross the UK border in 2022.

The country is facing more debates over a "crisis" of asylum seekersPeople who have left their countries due to danger and are seeking refuge elsewhere. , as figures show that 40,000 people have crossed the English channel in boats so far this year.

Amid the controversy, home secretary Suella Braverman has been criticised this week for describing the arrival of asylum seekers in the UK as an "invasion on our southern coast".

"Let's stop pretending they are all refugees in distress; the whole country knows that is not true," she announced in the House of CommonsThe democratically elected house of the UK Parliament. It consists of 650 Members of Parliament. , angering many of her fellow Members of ParliamentA Member of Parliament (or MP) is somebody who has been elected - chosen by the people - to represent their part of the country in Parliament. This is where politicians debate and make laws..

Braverman's controversial comments are not the only major migration-related news story this week. On Sunday, a British pensioner threw petrol bombs at an immigration centre in Dover, whilst experts have reported "inhumane" conditions at another Kent immigration centre.²

The problem goes far beyond British politics. Natural disasters, war and discrimination are driving a continuous global refugee crisis from countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

Some argue that the global migration system is broken, and that refugees and asylum seekers should be refused unless they are skilled and bring societal benefits.

Others believe the system itself is not the problem, but people's discriminatory attitudes towards migrants.

Yes: The case study of the United Kingdom makes it clear that the global migration system is broken. Countries do not have the capacity to take on tens or hundreds of thousands of people, possibly even millions, at a time of economic crisis.

No: The system is not broken, but successive global governments have done everything they can to stoke fear about immigration. Refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants are scapegoats for governments to blame for their own policy mistakes.

Or... The system is under strain, but we need to put a human response first. When we turn down asylum seekers, we often sentence them to death. We should not be framing it in terms of a "broken system", but in terms of moral choices.