There is nothing new about migration. People have always been on the move, for work, for love, for seeking better lives and in many cases – because home had become ‘the mouth of a shark’ as Banksy has put it.
Today 250 Million of the world inhabitants permantly live in a country that they were not born in. If migrants were to form their own country, it would be the 5 th most populous in the world. Many more people call several places home, and regularly move between them. The last few decades have seen a large increase of these figures, as easier transport and media have spurred global connectivity.
For quite some time, politicians have encouraged such connectivity under the banner of globalisation. There has been the consistent talk of the ‘global village’ in which we were living. At least two generations of children have been brought up to think of themselves as ‘citizens of the world’ in many places of the world.