An interesting view from France on the BBC reflecting on yesterday's tragedy in the Channel, where it's felt that "smashing the criminal gangs" won't solve the problem of small boat crossings, which is due to the pull of the UK's poorly-regulated employment market...
"He did condemn the smugglers, but most of his comments focused on the lure of what he views as Britain’s loosely regulated job market, that acts like a magnet, drawing young Eritreans, determined Sudanese, Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis to this coastline, convinced that they if they can just make it across this last, short stretch of water - or even half way across - they’ll end up in a country where they can find work, even without the right paperwork.
In doing so, he touched on a widely-held belief here in France, which is that however much effort is put into tackling the smuggling gangs it will never be enough. That this is a crisis fuelled by the demands of tens of thousands of determined migrants, rather than by the profit-seeking motives of a loose network of criminals."
France sees Channel migrant deaths as a problem of Britain's making
Many in France deeply resent the way their own lives have been transformed by a crisis they see as British-made.
www.bbc.co.uk
It's not a perspective I've read before. Is it easier to get work in the UK, without proper credentials, than in other countries?
