Subject: Re: Open borders and pythons
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 15:45:49 GMT


Further to the debate about migration and asylum seekers: I recommend Jeremy 
Harding's "The Uninvited", published in London a couple months ago. It has 
answers to many of the questions raised, and provides the economic necessity 
for Europe to open up its borders. Who'll pay for the social security in 20 
years when the aging population gets greyer, and there are fewer and fewer 
younger people to work and pay taxes? Those subscrining to the LRB may have 
read the book when it was published as a long piece in spring.

On the issue of "Why Britain?", the charming Mr Hague and his good friend, 
Ms Widdecombe, seem to belief that Britain's social security, and asylum 
voucher system is oh, so generous, that people are willing to travel miles 
in trucks and air cargo and in the boots of cars, to get to Britain. And the 
Gotcha! school of British journalism loves showing how people come in, 
despite stringnet border controls. I wonder if the UK were to join the 
Schengen agreement fully, it might make it better.

The British record hasn't been particularly edifying; in a recent piece in 
the LRB, a writer has shown how the British let in 83,000 Jews in the years 
upto WW II, when the number of files were over half a million. In other 
words, to keep the riff-raff at bay is a tradition as time-honoured as tea 
and crumpets.

On the same subject, the BBC had an interesting mini series, called 
EU-topia, about the attraction to come to the EU.

Salil

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