While the concerns of the more vulnerable parts of the population must be addressed, we should recognize that international mobility is a positive force for economic and social development: if properly handled, it could help poor countries to grow by alleviating the pressure on their labour markets, and it could ease the consequences of ageing in richer economies, which need a young labour force to balance falling birth rates.
But we should not ignore the conflicts that migration may generate. A first one is between the citizens of rich countries, who enjoy a “citizenship rent” they have received without meriting it, and the citizens of poor countries, who try to escape a poverty for which they have no responsibility.