Inspired by the article about Professor Daniel Kanstroom’s latest book, Deportation World, BC Law Magazine decided to collect some related data on migration and immigration. The intention was to provide a graphical and statistical snapshot of movement trends around the world, including in America, that have an impact on deportation and result in a host of other outcomes involving migration, immigration, apprehension, and deaths.
Immigration is an almost impossibly complex phenomenon that touches, in obvious and subtle ways, every human being on the planet. It concerns where and how we live, what we eat, who governs our nations, how we treat our neighbors, how we write our laws, the languages we speak, the clothes we wear, the religions we practice, the people we marry, and the children we raise, among others.
Truth be told, we will never stop moving. Our very nature compels us to look to the next horizon, seek firmer ground, and acquire what we need to keep ourselves and our species alive. In this, we are all alike. And we are certainly not alone.
It behooves us, then, to consider with compassion and wise measures those who knock on the doors of lands that are safer and more stable than those they’ve left behind by force or desperation or even in search of opportunity.
The data here remind us of the sheer numbers of the migration phenomenon. What they don’t express is the heart it will take for us all to make room for one another.
To view the infographic, click here.