Brexit. Love it or hate it. I wasn’t in favour, and I’m still not. But it was a democratic decision, and collectively, we chose it. For me, it’s now more difficult to spend more than 90 days in Europe and I would have preferred the freedom of movement across the continent.
This morning, I was reading about Labour’s plans for ‘migrant deals’ in The Times. It’s a complicated issue and I’m not pretending to have all the answers. But at a very basic level, I keep wondering: why does any group or nation get to claim control over large parts of this planet, deciding who can or can’t move across boundaries that were drawn up years, even centuries, ago?
What gives me the right to water when others go thirsty? To land that can grow food, while others go hungry? These questions might sound naïve, but they come into in my mind when I reflect on the challenge. Of course, when you add layers of systems, governments, taxes, benefits, security concerns, religious beliefs, and language barriers, you can start to see why the world is divided as it is. We justify it as necessary, practical, even sensible.
But then we go further, building new systems and rules to keep us in our designated boxes—our home countries—and keep others out, unless they fit certain criteria. Often that means being wealthy, well-connected or simply useful.
I’m not an expert on migration, just an everyday person who recognises the advantages of my own circumstances. It’s no real hardship for me to get a visa or stick to the 90-day rule. But if I were less privileged and needed a safe place, water or food, I know I’d feel differently. What right do I have to determine the fate of others, simply because I was lucky enough to be born where I was?
Can we rebuild a fairer world? Probably not entirely. But we could definitely do better. Maybe we could look at things more holistically—addressing challenges in the UK like the benefits system, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the NHS crisis—while also rethinking the rigid, territorial world order that defines our lives today.
Honestly, I don’t know if that’s possible. But what I do know is that the same old strategies—shuffling through yet another version of ‘stop the boats’ policies—aren’t the answer.
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