The Egyptian police, in a climax of the country’s ongoing bid to stop a surge of African migrants from crossing over to Israel, opened fire on African migrants, killing one and wounding four others. This is the second time in less than a month that Egypt is doing this in the wake of concerted efforts by the European Union to prevail upon Africa to cast a net on its population.

No legitimate economic globalization can take root with restriction of movement. A lot of energy and resources are wasted on attempts to hold back people who are seeking a better life. This has led to booming business for foreign embassies which extort huge sums of money for Visa applicants, shutting out genuine applicants who can’t afford such kickbacks.

The EU, on the other hand, is playing a double game. Faced with declining birth rates, aging populations and retirees, it will require 1.6 million migrants annually to maintain its population at the current levels until 2050. In addition, it will require 13.5 million migrants to maintain the steady ratio between the working and retired populations annually, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates.

If people are willing to risk their lives to cross boundaries, respective countries ought to take this signal seriously and address the push and pull triggers, with a view of tapping into the human resource. Egypt for example, ought to address complains on racism, abuse and economic marginalization of fellow Africans. Whereas security is doubtlessly an important concern, the September 11 tragedy ought not be a scapegoat to close borders and curtail freedoms to peaceful workers and immigrants. Instead, the environment that breeds insecurity ought to be addressed.

Viewing migrants as a problem is racist and counterproductive. More people mean more workers, more spending, more tastes, more cultural innovation and more brains to hatch new ideas.