The wrecks that occur every day in the Mediterranean and the tens of thousands of refugees who move on foot to the centre of Europe along the Balkan...

The despair of those men and women is so great that they choose to leave despite running the risk of rejection and even death. These tragedies are not to be ascribed to an unfavorable destiny, but are the product of the lack of a policy capable of governing the phenomenon and a selfish and renunciatory attitude toward the dramas that are experiencing those populations.

The EU, despite having pursued in words the design of a Euro-Mediterranean Community, in fact did not create the conditions to approach its achievement. The Euro-Mediterranean partnership, launched in 1995 in order to create a free trade area and promote cooperation in various fields, has failed in its purpose. The EU did not promote a plan for the development of the countries of North Africa and the Middle East and did nothing to support the Arab Spring. The only visible manifestation of EU policy in the region has been the establishment of Frontex, the agency that is responsible for patrolling the coast, but that, because of the insufficiency of the means at its disposal and its intergovernmental structure, is far from effectively performing the duties of a European coastguard, first of all the rescue of survivors and the identification of those entitled to asylum. Another thing is a Union's Border Police Corps, which should include the functions of the Coast Guard, but should extend its powers to land borders, as required by the increased migration flows that run through the Balkan route.

In short, the immigration crisis has been dealt with almost exclusively as a security problem. No country can hope to cope alone with the challenge of migration from Africa and Asia, as well as other global challenges of the twenty-first century. Now, to stem the increasing flow of migrants, everywhere new walls are raised which take us back to the Europe of nation states that excludes and rejects. If individual states return to the only type of security they believe to be able to ensure - border control - the values that have inspired the European project are at stake.

This way leads to question one of the greatest achievements of European integration: the free movement of persons within the Schengen area. The Schengen agreements have promoted only a "negative integration", namely the knocking down of the borders between EU member states without building at the same time an external border under the control of a EU police force. Failing the external border control, inevitably the national border controls must return. Border control remains a national prerogative. And when reception capacities were saturated, to stem the rising tide of migration flows, borders have been closed. It is a decision that Chancellor Merkel has called "repugnant", deploring xenophobia and populism of political forces and governments that have chosen to reject migrants. Announcing that Germany is ready to welcome 800,000 Syrian refugees, she has gone beyond the Dublin regulations which oblige to register in the country of arrival, where the migrant has to ask for refugee status, without being allowed to go to another member state, even if he wants to. But in order for this project to be successful, it needs the solidarity of the other member states. Realism requires to recognize that, in the context of globalization, national borders are a vestige of the past and migration flows are unstoppable.

The EU believes to make an exceptionally burdensome effort in welcoming 120,000 refugees. However, it is a modest figure if compared to the number of refugees who have found shelter in Turkey (2 million), Lebanon (1.2 million), Jordan (600,000). And yet, the argument on the allocation of refugees has caused a deep rift between the member states and the paralysis of the decision-making process of the Union. Not just the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have joined the rejection front. Even Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain have reacted the same way and even France has belatedly accepted the proposal of binding quotas. Either the countries that have raised the walls, or those that have opened their borders, or those which, after opening borders, have closed them showed that the rules of Schengen and Dublin, governing the free movement of persons in the EU, have ceased to function.

In fact, such an impressive flow of migrants is a tremendous opportunity for Europe. As stated by the German Vice-Chancellor Gabriel, the difficulties encountered in the reception of refugees do not lie primarily in their number, but in the speed with which they arrive. This is precisely the result of the lack of a serious reception plan aiming to bring order and organization to migration policies. The arrival of migrants can fill a vacuum resulting from the declining birth rate and the ageing of the population and can rescue Europe from an inevitable demographic, economic and political decline. Europe needs the contribution of a growing number of young people, which can only come from immigration. According to a projection by the European Commission, while in Europe today there are about four economically active people per retiree, in 2060 there will be just two potential workers per retiree¹. This means that the EU will need 42 million immigrants by 2020 and about 257 by 2060².

At the same time, for the people of the east and south coasts of the Mediterranean who in their countries are subjected to irresistible pressures - war, terrorism, dictatorship, poverty and unemployment - Europe is a magnet. Without the contribution of a young workforce from the periphery of Europe, who will ensure the recovery of development and competitiveness of the European economy? Who will pay for the cost of the welfare state in Europe? Who will provide the necessary resources to pay pensions and social security? When Chancellor Merkel has announced its readiness to welcome 800,000 Syrian refugees in Germany, she confirmed to possess the long-sightedness of statesmen facing changes of historic proportions. What is happening today are the first signs of a phenomenon destined to last for long: until the tensions and conflicts that cross the Middle-East and Africa will not be solved and the population explosion in those regions will lessen.

It is a challenge that can be won. The great migrations are our future. The construction of a large multinational community is the only alternative to the barbarism of the return of nationalism, fascism and the clash of civilizations, of which the ISIS is the harbinger. The Maastricht Treaty has defined the European citizenship as an institution that sides and does not replace, national citizenship and acknowledged that some constitutional rights, like the right to vote at local and European level, may be exercised by all European citizens in the country of residence. Thus, a step towards the separation of nationality from citizenship has been accomplished. In other words, who was considered a foreigner according to the criteria of national thought has become a fellow-citizen of a multinational community. We can expect that mass migration now under way will give a strong impulse to extend European citizenship also to non-EU citizens.

A European policy on immigration and asylum requires the provision of substantial resources for the construction of reception centres not only in European countries where arrivals of migrants have reached record numbers (in Greece, Italy, Germany), but also in countries neighboring Syria, where the inhuman conditions of refugee camps managed by the UN induce people to flee to Europe. The new resources needed to cope with this emergency should be added to those that the Juncker Plan will have to mobilize to absorb unemployment, which remains at the level of 10%. This confirms the urgent need to significantly increase the EU budget resources, starting with the Eurozone countries. At the same time, there is a need to open humanitarian corridors to protect migrants from the risks they run during their journey, including those due to the traffickers in human beings.

¹ European Commission, The 2015 Ageing Report, 2014, p. 2.
² L. Bershidsky, Europe Doesn't Have Enough Immigrants, Bloomberg, 4 September 2015.