The recent conflict in Mali €" like conflicts in Somalia and Syria €" has the real potential to create a refugee crisis. In such cases, corruption interplays with ethnicity to create a volatile cocktail which pushes desperate families out in search of economic opportunities often first to neighbouring countries, but invariably and eventually to the West.
Throughout much of the developing world exists a form of government by theft. In these environments, corruption by a select few filters down to an entire political and bureaucratic system. This impedes the rule of law and ensures under-investment in education and healthcare, thereby massively restricting economic opportunities.
The cancer of corruption has a daily impact on people throughout Africa, Asia and (although now less in the South) Latin America.
Countries which have successfully reduced bureaucratic corruption have seen their economies flourish. Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan have ended widespread corruption and created economic opportunities.
Neither they nor Gulf Countries, much of South America and rare African success stories like Botswana, today provide much of the world's immigrants. If anything many people who left these countries have returned and, these countries are now attracting foreign labour of their own.
By contrast, regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Arab world and Central America remain hotbeds of bribery, fraud and money laundering €" killing economic opportunities and pushing out millions upon millions every year. In places like Mali, corruption interplays with tribalism to create conflict which further displaces people.
The West's reaction to corruption and the ensuing emigration which follows, divides into two categories €" both equally wrong. The first reaction is a nativism which sees immigrants as feckless and lazy, liable to undermine the social fabric and who should have stayed at home regardless of what remained for them there.
The second reaction €" often among more affluent Westerners €" is that immigrants provide a cheap source of labour, have the children many Westerners do not want and offer a greater variety of restaurants than would otherwise exist.
Nobody should have to leave their country for a better quality of life. Western migration is often temporary and within the West. But crucially the move is not a necessity. A Dutchman does not have to move to Norway for economic opportunities, and vice-versa.
But for many people in the developing world, their countries are organised, led and managed for the benefit of a select few. Emigration is often the only hope for a better way of life. So long as the West turns a blind eye €" in the secure knowledge that the ready supply of cheap labour will keep on coming €" so this forcible displacement will continue.
The morality of a West which sides with today's kleptocrats by ignoring their corruption €" while stealing the essential brains and brawn of Africa and Asia, which is needed to develop those continents €" is questionable at best and morally repugnant at worst.
Congratulating oneself on one's own tolerance is no compensation to somebody who has to leave behind kith and kin, and the landscape, culture and traditions which they call home.
The most obvious example of this failure by the West is the United States' relationship with Mexico. For all talk of development, Mexico is still a squarely developing nation with gangs in control of much of it €" often living off the proceeds of narcotics.
Yet Washington has failed to live up to its promise to the Mexican people €" fixing the demand side of the drug trade and offering administrative assistance to Mexico City to fight corruption and enhance economic opportunities south of the border.
Complaining about immigration or celebrating it are equally repulsive responses to the tragedy which befalls those who are forcibly displaced by kleptocracy and corruption-induced war and famine. The plight of immigrants does not begin at the gates of New York, London or Toronto but in the villages and towns of the developing world.
It is not the developing world's job to provide labour for the developed world. No child in Pakistan or Nigeria should have to flee West for the chances which are theirs by right.
Throughout much of the developing world exists a form of government by theft. In these environments, corruption by a select few filters down to an entire political and bureaucratic system. This impedes the rule of law and ensures under-investment in education and healthcare, thereby massively restricting economic opportunities.
The cancer of corruption has a daily impact on people throughout Africa, Asia and (although now less in the South) Latin America.
Countries which have successfully reduced bureaucratic corruption have seen their economies flourish. Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan have ended widespread corruption and created economic opportunities.
Neither they nor Gulf Countries, much of South America and rare African success stories like Botswana, today provide much of the world's immigrants. If anything many people who left these countries have returned and, these countries are now attracting foreign labour of their own.
By contrast, regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Arab world and Central America remain hotbeds of bribery, fraud and money laundering €" killing economic opportunities and pushing out millions upon millions every year. In places like Mali, corruption interplays with tribalism to create conflict which further displaces people.
The West's reaction to corruption and the ensuing emigration which follows, divides into two categories €" both equally wrong. The first reaction is a nativism which sees immigrants as feckless and lazy, liable to undermine the social fabric and who should have stayed at home regardless of what remained for them there.
The second reaction €" often among more affluent Westerners €" is that immigrants provide a cheap source of labour, have the children many Westerners do not want and offer a greater variety of restaurants than would otherwise exist.
Nobody should have to leave their country for a better quality of life. Western migration is often temporary and within the West. But crucially the move is not a necessity. A Dutchman does not have to move to Norway for economic opportunities, and vice-versa.
But for many people in the developing world, their countries are organised, led and managed for the benefit of a select few. Emigration is often the only hope for a better way of life. So long as the West turns a blind eye €" in the secure knowledge that the ready supply of cheap labour will keep on coming €" so this forcible displacement will continue.
The morality of a West which sides with today's kleptocrats by ignoring their corruption €" while stealing the essential brains and brawn of Africa and Asia, which is needed to develop those continents €" is questionable at best and morally repugnant at worst.
Congratulating oneself on one's own tolerance is no compensation to somebody who has to leave behind kith and kin, and the landscape, culture and traditions which they call home.
The most obvious example of this failure by the West is the United States' relationship with Mexico. For all talk of development, Mexico is still a squarely developing nation with gangs in control of much of it €" often living off the proceeds of narcotics.
Yet Washington has failed to live up to its promise to the Mexican people €" fixing the demand side of the drug trade and offering administrative assistance to Mexico City to fight corruption and enhance economic opportunities south of the border.
Complaining about immigration or celebrating it are equally repulsive responses to the tragedy which befalls those who are forcibly displaced by kleptocracy and corruption-induced war and famine. The plight of immigrants does not begin at the gates of New York, London or Toronto but in the villages and towns of the developing world.
It is not the developing world's job to provide labour for the developed world. No child in Pakistan or Nigeria should have to flee West for the chances which are theirs by right.