Thank you for the thoughtful post. I don’t disagree with most of what you say.
Though I don’t think we have any obligation to do so in most cases, I would support effective measures to make the third world less hellish and therefore lessen the exodus of people from those lands. Ideally that would be combined with strong enforcement and deportation that makes it clear that anyone who illegally enters Europe (or the U.S. or Australia) that they will not get to stay; they will be sent home.
I don’t disagree about western actions, military and otherwise, leading to some of this. It’s one of the reasons I opposed invading Iraq or getting involved in Syria, or helping topple Kadafi. It was obvious all those things would increase the number of refugees, and it was obvious that the West would be suckers and take in those refugees.
>>”It was obvious all those things would increase the number of refugees, and it was obvious that the West would be suckers and take in those refugees.”<<
Yes. Perhaps, the West should have stayed out of that part of the world entirely in the last 60 yrs or so; though it’s too late now, and the West obviously won’t stay out.
So, if the West does continue to wage wars, then the West equally is *morally*, at least, obliged to take in the refugees that result. History is often a continuation; we also are and have been paying for the consequences of our own actions in those parts of the world for the last 60 yrs, if not more.