Mr Kofi Annan spoke the truth yesterday when he said the EU needs migrants in this new century, just as they need Europe.
As he put it in a speech to the European Parliament marking his acceptance of the Andrei Sakharov prize, a closed Europe would be "meaner, poorer, weaker, older", whereas an open one would be "fairer, richer, stronger, younger - provided Europe manages immigration well". In making these points he argued that immigrants are "part of the solution, not part of the problem". They must not be made a scapegoat for "a vast array of social ills" as they adjust to their new societies.
This is a refreshingly candid message from a genuine friend of the enlarging European Union. It comes as several EU member-states - the Netherlands the latest among them - have restricted immigration from the states set to join it next May. In fact there is little evidence of a desire to migrate within the enlarged EU. Rather do many of its neighbouring peoples and those from elsewhere in the world wish to come to live and work within its new borders. Demographic trends will ensure they are needed if the EU is to fulfil its ambitions to remain a competitive region in a more globalised world.
Ireland is a case study in this regard. Some 300,000 people have come here to work in the last six years from all over Europe and the rest of the world - the largest per capita labour migration within the EU during this period, next to Luxembourg's. They supplemented the extra labour force available from the unemployed, women workers and returning Irish emigrants as the economy expanded enormously in the 1990s.
Ireland's society and economy have thereby been lastingly reconfigured; and this will be maintained, according to an ESRI study published yesterday, which foresees a 33 per cent shortfall in the domestic labour supply over the next decade.
All our institutions are endeavouring to adjust to these new realities in a more multicultural Ireland. As we do so, it is as well to note Mr Annan's estimate that at $88 billion per annum, the world flow of emigrant remittances compares to annual flows of $57 billion in development aid. Recent studies have shown that Irish emigrants sent back a similar proportion of funds in the middle decades of the last century. This State has been singularly reluctant to accept any obligations to help them as they retire and grow old, mainly in British towns and cities. Mr Annan's speech is a sharp and timely reminder that migration is an abiding and necessary part of Europe's - and Ireland's - relations with the rest of the world.