The world is on the move, but not in a happy sense. Reports of refugees' boats sinking on the high seas underline a growing humanitarian crisis. As many as 11 million people were displaced by violence in 2014 in places like Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. The primary source is Syria along with Iraq; since 2011 as many as 11 million Syrians have been displaced with four million living abroad.
Elsewhere around the world, the usual problems of economic inequality and the paucity of good jobs are to blame. Almost 48,000 refugees mostly from Eritrea, Somalia and Nigeria have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy this year alone. The crisis has stretched Sicily's ability to cope, leading to the Italian government suggesting the burden be shared by wealthier north Italy. Last week, this plan prompted the governor of the northern Veneto region calling for refugees to be immediately cleared from tourist areas, warning that their presence would have a "devastating effect" on business. The death of 700 migrants who drowned when a boat sank in April has prompted the European Union to increase search and rescue operations along southern Italy. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi deserves credit for speaking up for the need to treat the refugees with basic decency in the face of a vicious backlash.
Closer to home, the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar as well as general economic distress in Bangladesh has led to an increase in people-trafficking. While Bangladesh's better maternal health indicators have helped the fertility rate fall below India's, the former country remains one of the most densely packed places on earth with as many as 1,203 people crowding into a square km. Meanwhile, political upheaval of the past few years and the ceaseless bickering and battling between the ruling party and the opposition have caused a slowdown in foreign investment. The pace of new job creation in industries like garments has slowed as a result, leaving sections of Bangladesh's demographic bulge so desperate for work that they will pay smugglers and board rickety boats to travel the seas to find jobs. Peace in West Asia would help stem the spike in the number of refugees. In the longer term, the only answer is for governments elsewhere to create the conditions to boost job growth at home.
