Closing doors, expanding crises

The paradox of anti-migrant isolationism

Across much of the Western world, anti-migration politics is in the ascendency. The Trump administration has begun its tenure with the expansion and deployment of ICE, pulling suspected migrants off the streets. Here, Reform are profiting from anger at rising legal migration and the flow of refugees across the Channel. Across Europe, far-right parties are surging, with immigration one of their most common concerns.

Few of these parties are single issue anti-immigration outfits. They are part of a broader movement of the right towards nativism and isolationism. Many of them reject supranational bodies, like the EU and the UN. Most are sceptical of climate change and oppose steps to reduce it. They generally oppose Western aid and other involvement in nation-building abroad, instead preferring isolationism and nativism. As a suite of views, it feels coherent as a retreat from the rest of the world and behind the security of borders. In reality, however, it contains a great contradiction.

While they may push to reduce migration at home, much of their other policies would fuel it. Turning their backs on global problems would further fuel the sorts of issues that push migrants out of their home countries. They directly oppose many of the things that directly drive migration, and are likely to make it more of an issue as the 21^st century progresses. Their economic, diplomatic and climate approaches run counter to their most prominent policy position, sowing the seeds of future failure. Unthinkingly, they are becoming the accelerants of the very issue that most animates them.