BENCHMARKING IN THE MIGRANT BUSINESS
Recently, Gerard Collomb, the French Interior minister stated that migrants were “benchmarking” European countries to assess which one offered the best social advantages. He was probably focusing on economic migrants rather than political or war asylum seekers. It is actually opportune that migrants do benchmarking since they have to recoup their journey investment! Obviously, the minister’s comments made many people on the left of the political spectrum wince; however, his observation only reflects the reality of the situation. He was repeating what many migration experts had said all along. Economic migrants, particularly Sub-Saharan Africans spend large amount of money to be able to land on the European shore to seek asylum. Most of them have travelled on borrowed money. The media wrongly focuses on the people-trafficking phase in the failed state Libya. However, the fees paid to the smugglers are only the tip of the iceberg! This rac...