Oman Daily Observer
VIEWPOINT –
By Haider bin Abdul Redha al Lawati –
haiderdawood –
Every now and then dozens of illegal immigrants who are left in the sea face their fate before reaching the lands. Today European countries are faced with such issues due to migration by unemployed people from the northern and southern African countries to the European continent.
Immigration represents a form of correction in the balance of the number of population between different countries, especially if they are neighbours to each other. However, higher wages and salaries, high standard of living in cities, and availability of advanced services, all help to increase the rates of immigration from the countryside to the cities or from poor areas to the rich ones.
This is what is happening between the Arab Magreb countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) in North Africa and a number of adjacent countries north of the Mediterranean, particularly Spain which is considered to be the main gateway to Europe, where it is only 14 kilometres from the Moroccan border, besides the Italy coast.
In this background, I would like to concentrate on clandestine and illegal immigration from the Arab Magreb countries to the north of the Mediterranean. Political, geographic, demographic and economic factors played a great role in this illegal immigration. It is well-known that there are many opportunities that certain European provinces could provide to immigrant African workers, while urban unemployment among young and educated people in the Arab Magreb countries is rising.
Social networks in this regard had a crucial role in increasing the likelihood of migration. Their main job was to help illegal workers to cross to the other side of the Mediterranean. Some of these networks are mafias who have to secure only the crossing of the border, and to increase the rate of illegal immigration by charging high prices from immigrants. Most of these networks are mixtures of both Moroccan and European individuals. They deal in smuggling, counterfeiting and controlling the future of young potential immigrants.
Clandestine and illegal immigration had always been a difficult issue and a great challenge to the authorities between the two sides, and it requires more co-operation within the common international borders. It is true that the concept of clandestine and illegal immigration is internationally undesirable.
However, the European countries receive cheap labour and have known about such regular and routine immigration for years and started earnestly in the seventieth of the last century concurrently with the annulment of importing foreign labour by the European countries. The demographic changes in Europe, where the population of countries such as Spain and Italy is set to decline in the next few decades, will affect the economic conditions there.
The matter aggravated during the eighties with the signing of the Schengen Agreement and the Maastricht Treaty that united Europe in 1990, (requiring a visa, strict border surveillance, and imposing a selective ceiling for work permits). This led African workers to follow twisted ways to reach Europe, while the illegal migration networks grew too.
Clandestine and illegal immigration activities to Europe increased with the closure of Spanish borders in the face of Moroccan workers. Gibraltar turned into a graveyard for the victims who were predominantly young people. Illegal immigration occupied a prominent position in political speeches and media reports since 1991.
There is no doubt there are different reasons that forced young African to resort to clandestine immigration to Europe because of historic relations between them during the colonial era. Morocco and Algeria, and to a lesser degree Tunisia, dominate the southern Mediterranean migration flows to Europe. The historical development of Maghrebian migration to Europe is closely connected with the colonial ties between Europe — namely France — and the countries of this region. According to the European sources, the total number of Maghrebians in Europe is about 2.2 million.
The problem of clandestine and illegal immigration to the countries of the European Union will remain as the main obsession despite the security and political steps taken by the concerned countries in this regard, especially as they have failed until now in crystallising and devising a convincing approach in dealing with the illegal immigration and the waves of migrant foreigners looking for sources of livelihood and escape from the state of marginalisation in the countries of the South.
No doubt that the volume of illegal migration is a reaction of to restriction of legal migration, and the defence of the rights of immigrants is no longer a right of the countries exporting migrants, but it is an international right in light of the existence of international agreements issued by the United Nations.
However, developed countries regard migration as a threatening factor that affects their sovereignty and national identities, while developing countries regard it as a possible escape from their political, economic, and social and overpopulation problems.
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