Closed door policy; Example Ilegal Transits from Mexico, Central America and Africa

Today  I’m going to work on a few migratory policies that   Marmora does not mention in his book published in 2004, I’ll call this first one the closed door policy. It tries to limit or stop, as much as possible the influx of migrants or any particular group of them. It’s characterized to use an excessively rigorous criteria is used stopping migrants from getting legal residencies. One must add that there is strong emphasis on the border, especially as concept defining it as a place that divides. This way of defining the border can isolate a country from the unwanted migrants, but it affects its relation with its neighbor countries. In some extreme cases some counties get to the point of literally building walls on their borders trying to become airtight, and at their border crossings they implement a strict control of who enters and leaves its territory, most visible examples are the United States with Mexico, Greece with Turkey border, Israel with Palestine...just to mention a few cases. Whenever the authority of a territory, for whatever reasons, cannot, does not or does not know how to address issues like migratory transit, building walls seems to be the best and only viable option for some States. 

With this type of immigration policy, has a tendency to put a greater emphasis on police control over administrative control and the potential that the migrant is a possible criminal underlines most of the States actions. Many of the measures are taken trying to stop immigrants, but one  must keep in mind that some of them are willing to risk their lives, with this driving idea of a better perspective of life for him/her and his/hers family. They don’t have the means to get visas or travel with all the legal requirements; they know they will be refused at the border, for many migrants illegal transits are there only chance they get to a better life, these barriers are built with these people in mind. 

Let’s put this into perspective, the desperation and determination of some Central American immigrants is so great that it makes these people, take a train when they arrive to Mexico called the Beast (actual they are a group of trains).If they Survive the transit across Mexico on top of these trains, avoid being captured by their migratory control and having to deal with some xenophobic and criminal elements in country, and they are victim of all kinds of abuses. When they get to the US Border they have to jump a pretty high wall evade US border control which is a small army, cross a desert  without the adequate recourses and last but not least try not to run I with any crazy civilians patrolling these areas. Taking all this into account or these people are totally crazy or incredibly desperate, but one thing is a fact they have nothing to lose so dissuasion doesn’t work, build the most high-tech super killer wall, guarded by an army of terminators   and people will find a way to breach it. The Berlin wall was of the most patrolled in history, one could have risked certain death if captured or spotted and still people took the chance of crossing it.   

Another example to illustrate my point is what is happing with the States that have their coasts on the Mediterranean Sea having to deal with the influx of African immigrants.  In a very recommendable article to read in Le Monde special edition dedicated to Africa writer Jean Ziegler, a sociologist from Switzerland. Explains that European countries use Frontex, an agency of cooperation related to the European Union, to stop the influx of illegal transits coming from African countries.  The author explains that they use questionable military type actions to stop and capture migrants at sea and have on African territory special detention centers for these people that are in there custody.

Like in the other example these people a driven my desperation, and the author describes the how these people real should be considered refugees of hunger, since outside influences from Africa and internal corruption has ruined subsistence economies all across Africa, pushing people out of their lands or leaving them with places to fish, producing this mass exodus from this continent (Jean Ziegler; Refugees of Hunger; 2013).

  

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