Migration an opportunity not a threat

Migration will always be a part of our past, present and future.

They will always raise the same feelings of fear. Each time again however reason should be summoned and the situation calmly analysed.

A “no migrant” policy would have meant that France would have left out or expelled Maria Salomea Skłodowska, Alberto Wladimiro Alessandro Apollinare de Kostrowitzky, Guy Behar-Hassan, Ezra Benveniste or Pietro Cardini just to name a few names chosen from the top of the alphabetic list. Oh, you don’t know them? They are better known under the French version of their names: Marie Curie, Guillaume Apollinaire, Guy Béart, Emile Benveniste and Pierre Cardin.

For those who are unsure of their achievements, here are the main ones.

Marie Curie was born in 1867 in Warsaw; she came to study in Paris at 24 because academic careers were not open to women in Poland at the time. An outstanding mind, she was not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, but also the first person to win it twice, and the only person to win it twice in different scientific fields (physics and chemistry).

Guillaume Apollinaire, one of the foremost poets of the 20^th century, was born in Italy as a Polish subject of the Russian empire. He died in 1918 aged 38, under the French uniform. (Yes many foreign-born died under the French uniform.)

Guy Béart, the much acclaimed French singer who just died was born in Cairo in 1930, studied mostly in Lebanon, and finally came to Paris to study engineering. He was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Académie française in recognition of his achievements over his long career.

Emile Benveniste, born Ezra Benveniste in Alep, Syria, obtained French citizenship at 22 and became one of the leading linguists of the 20th century. (Yes good people can come from Syria.)

Pierre Cardin, who became famous as a representative of French haute couture, was born near Treviso, Italy, in 1922; incidentally he is also an extremely successful entrepreneur; he is in the top 5 of the most famous Frenchmen worldwide.

A few migrants... in alphabetical order from A to C...

And by the way, we would also miss the extremely French Gaul Asterix, the comics having been created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. (Both were French but born from respectively Italian and Polish parents.)

When I see today the number of engineers, technicians and other well educated migrants from Syria and Iraq who are making their way into the EU I rather think that our countries are on the winning side. Moreover they also had the courage and determination needed to make this dangerous trip with their families.

Additionally a few facts concerning our future should be made clear. To quote Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner responsible for Home Affairs on her hearing on migrations in the Hague on 5 June 2012, without immigration the EU's working age population would shrink by 12% by 2030 ; the EU is short of an estimated 380,000 to 700,000 IT workers in 2015 ; and by 2020, the health sector could be short of two million professionals.

Clearly already today if there had been no immigration so far there wouldn’t be enough people to look after my ageing mother in her nursing home and if there was no immigration today there would be no one to look after me when I’ll be there myself!

 As in previous waves of migration this one will be an effort in the first place but once the migrants will be settled they will build the future of our countries, their new home.