The opportunities and the challenges are often viewed separately, when in fact they are inextricably connected. Throughout history, countries at various stages of development have needed more workers or workers with certain skills. At the same time, people with special skills and a desire for higher wages have looked across the rivers or across the seas for employment. Often these workers send money back to their families and eventually return to their native land. They also guide us inexorably to the conclusion that nations cannot deal single-handedly with these migration flows.
Irregular migration comes in many forms.
Occasionally, people must flee from their homes to save their lives. By international consensus, most countries have allowed refugees to enter and to stay until it is safe to return home. A shared commitment to protecting the victims of conflict binds us all together. More often, irregular migration involves people who want to work in another country but who are unwilling or unable to do so by legal means. Sometimes these people are tricked into going to another country by false promises and then trapped in a desperate situation.