Waves of migration a call for global action

FROM the shores of the Mediterranean to the beaches of Malaysia, an intense escalation in international migration threatens the global order. In the large European countries of Germany, France and Britain, a rough estimate suggests that around 5 per cent of the population is born outside the country where they live.

The pressure on more to enter is mounting. During the first weekend of June, crews rescued 3,400 migrants off the coast of Libya, and more than a million more people have been reported as waiting to cross the Mediterranean. From 2005 to 2010, almost nine million people moved to Europe. Elsewhere, 3.5 million moved out of Africa. In Asia, 618,000 left Bangladesh for India, 489,000 went from Indonesia to Malaysia, and 258,000 people left Kazakhstan for Russia. In the United States, more than 1.8 million arrived from Mexico.

The root causes behind the movement of people on such a vast scale are persecution and poverty, and both require coordinated moves by the world's governments.