Europe’s labour demand complicates efforts to curb migration

I met a young man from Bangladesh aboard the Ocean Viking shortly after he had been rescued from a harrowing night at sea. He asked when he would be able to start working in Italy.

De Haas, a sociologist and university professor in Amsterdam and Maastricht, says demand for labour is the main force driving migration. “By far the best way to stop migration is to destroy your economy,” he recently told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Even politicians who take a strongly anti-migrant position are unlikely to advocate wrecking the economy. Instead, governments are tightening border controls and imposing restrictions. Bangladesh, the source article says, offers a useful example of how those measures are taking shape.