Untangling the immigration knot

The subject of immigration is front and center these days. While I believe that we all belong to our blue planet and ought to be able to roam wherever we want, unregulated, free movement of individuals would create chaos and there's a need for rules established and managed by national governments.

The easiest to understand and deal with is the economic immigration stream, based on moving skills that are in demand in certain countries.

This should also include people willing to pay a hefty price of entry. Immigration, however, has three additional entry routes: the humanitarian stream with its refugees and asylum seekers to whom states are willing to offer protection; family reunification; and illegal immigration.

While I am totally in favor of bringing people to a country based on skills that are in high demand, a better way to deal with asylum seeker is to address the root of the problem with countries that have no rules of law, are in the midst of wars or have their social and economic fabric in tatters. Richer countries have a responsibility to address these imbalances.

Family reunification has merit but must be contained within a limited scope only. Illegal immigration, of course, is not okay and should be vigorously enforced unless a country doesn't really care or turns a blind eye on human exploitation.

Like in all other domains, there should be best practices established by comparing the various immigration policies all across the planet and developing compromises that are fair and well tested.