Lampedusa Deaths: Formalize African Migration to Europe

Media interviews of Africans held up at crossing points to Europe along the Mediterranean Sea shores paint a picture of individuals keen to earn better wages; buy a home; support their families and live a better life. The modern shape of the World has migration in its building blocks.  Europe is currently grappling with the question of illegal movement of people into its sub-continent. Migration need not be a zero-sum game; Africa should push a strategy for easy to realize formalized migration to Europe.

Sendhill Mullainathan and Elder Shafir in the book “Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives” argues eloquently how scarcity captures the mind. The book offers illuminating insights on how scarcity, say of food, gets the starved peoples’ minds preoccupied with food issues. The human mind “…orients automatically, powerfully, toward unfulfilled needs.” What appears to be an obvious issue on scarcity can well give pointers on how to manage and make migration a positive agenda.