Europe hard on immigrants

THIS has a reference to Humeira Iqtidar’s ‘Europe hard on immigrants’ (Oct 8).I live in India and feel amazed at the bleeding heart journalism which focuses so frequently on the ‘plight’ of the illegal immigrants to the West from Pakistan and India.Let us get some facts straight.There are legal ways for immigration. Those who choose to jump the queue or subvert the process, deserve to be punished. The desire to have a better life in a Promised Land does not morally or legally, justify illegal immigration just as the desire to be rich does not justify theft as a route to being wealthy.Immigrants are accepted by the host country at their pleasure. If the host country does not want a particular immigrant, legal or otherwise, it is its right to prevent her or him from entering. In the case of illegal immigration, it is the target state which is the victim of aggression on the part of the immigrant.Prosperity is created by striving. Illegal immigrants are escapists, who run away from the challenges posed by their own land to seek an easier route to richness in a foreign land, taking advantage of stronger currencies. So you chose to go to a country which does not need you, in the first place. Why then complain about conditions there?If the West has created prosperity, it is because they have worked for it. Illegal immigrants are like flies, wanting a lick of the pie which is not theirs. Why don’t they work to create a better life in their own country?Whether immigration, legal or illegal, is good or not for a country economically or otherwise, is to be decided by that country alone. It is ridiculous to see Indian and Pakistani journalists labouring hard to prove that illegal immigration to Western countries is actually good for those countries.