Davos on Migrant Crisis: The Worst is Yet to Come

As the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, a number of issues are on the table for discussion, most importantly the migrant issue.

The group’s 2016 Global Risks report named the migration crisis the biggest risk because of its high likelihood, with climate change also ranking high due to the potential impact.

The recent refugee levels currently are about 50% higher than they were at the height of World War II, with around 60 million displaced people from Syria to Sudan.

Davos leader, Klaus Schwab, predicts that the global economic crisis slowly forming due to plunging stock markets and uncertainty with China will eventually lead to a tsunami of immigration.

Schwab points to the rapidly dropping prices of commodities as the starting point for this immigration tsunami, noting that many countries rely on the income from oil for example. He points out that if some 1 billion people in Africa move north as a result of the dropping oil prices that can no longer support their countries, this will create an even larger immigration nightmare for Europe.

Schwab also believes that technological advances will eventually put millions out of work and lead to the dissolution of the middle class, which he calls a “pillar of our democracies.”

Despite these grim predictions for the future of the world, Schwab still points the finger at Republican candidate Donald Trump for playing on the fears and emotions of American people.

Editor’s commentary:  Malthus said “Population expands to consume all available resources, checked by war, famine and disease.” Turns out this applies to third world nations, but does not apply to affluent societies who voluntarily limit their own population. The situation now is populations in the third world, artificially expanded by external resources (oil revenues, and other interactions with the first world) are to the point where a minor economic downturn forces them into the war, famine or disease mode, thus the desire to migrate.

The problem will not be fixed by migration, and liberal policies on migration will only subsidize further population growth in the third world while destroying the first world.  The solution is containment of the third world, while transforming these cultures into productive, self sustaining socieities.  Easy to say, tough to do.