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  • People have always migrated.

  • The history of the world is a history of migration.

  • But has migration gone too far?

  • Over the past few decades, the reasons for migration have multiplied.

  • Wars, famines and climate change are pushing people from their homes.

  • There's now the highest number of displaced people worldwide.

  • Some 66 million people have been forced elsewhere in the world.

  • Of these, 23 million are refugees.

  • The war in Syria has affected millions of people.

  • Some 3.3 million Syrian refugees currently live in Turkey.

  • Others fled to Europe.

  • Combined with this, there's also economic migration, both legal and illegal.

  • Since the mid 2000s, as the European Union expanded, several million people have migrated from Eastern Europe to Britain and other EU countries.

  • Each year, thousands of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa get on boats off the coast of Libya to try and find work in Europe.

  • This sense of unprecedented scale has caused a backlash.

  • Anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise.

  • Donald Trump capitalized on this when he talked about building a wall between America and Mexico.

  • Open border, it's a sieve.

  • We have no idea who's coming in.

  • In Germany, the right wing Alternative für Deutschland has become the biggest opposition party in parliament.

  • This may lead some to obey the strict controls of migration needed.

  • There is a liberal case for open migration.

  • Migration often makes a country richer.

  • Migrants from the EU are more likely to be paying taxes than taking our benefits in Britain.

  • Governments have a moral case for helping the most vulnerable in society.

  • With rich world countries shrinking demographically, they will also reap the benefits down the line.

  • But there are things we can do to help.

  • Smarter social integration.

  • Efforts to make immigrants stakeholders in society, not just long-term visitors.

  • There is no quick and easy solution to migration, but without making a liberal case for it, this will divide societies for decades to come.

People have always migrated.

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