Turning the tide? Why 'development instead of migration' policies are bound to fail

Restrictive immigration policies and the militarisation of external border controls by the US and the EU have failed to significantly curb immigration from Latin America and Africa. Rather, they have led to greater reliance on increasingly risky and costly undocumented migration and have paradoxically encouraged permanent settlement. A commonly presented ‘smart solution’ to curb immigration is to address the perceived root causes of migration through increasing aid to or liberalising trade with countries.