Forced migration and the global wall
How colonial structures push millions to emigrate while criminalizing them
Forced migration and the global wall: How colonial structures push millions to migrate while criminalizing them
Migration, as it is experienced today, is neither a spontaneous nor a “natural” phenomenon. It is not that millions of people “decide” to leave their homes on a whim, for adventure, or on a whim. Mass migration from the Global South has deep roots in a system that has spent centuries draining wealth, destroying local economies, and weakening basic living standards.
It is, in reality, an escape, not a journey. It is forced displacement disguised as individual choice.
Europe, North America, and the major centers of power are building their borders like walls, while Africa and Latin America are increasingly becoming territories of expulsion. The dominant narrative always blames the migrant: that they come for benefits, that they don't want to work, that they are indeed a problem.
But that narrative never looks at the big picture. It never asks why they are walking, who destroyed their economies, what forced them to abandon everything.
Europe as a white fortress
Since the mid-20th century, Europe has rebuilt its identity as a fortress. Not just a geographical border, but an imaginary construct: “European” as civilized, safe, modern, organized, white. A bubble sustained by the wealth it continues to extract from the rest of the world.
As European wealth continues to accumulate, its borders are becoming more rigid:
Tanks in the Mediterranean.
Patrols in the Sahara funded by Brussels.
Increasingly restrictive immigration laws.
Detention centers in Libya paid for with European money.
Europe has externalized its border: today migrants are stopped before they arrive, before they breathe, before they exist for the statistics.
Meanwhile, the countries of the Global South, which have never received historical reparations for centuries of plunder, face economic crises manufactured in distant offices. And when their citizens flee, Europe points the finger of blame: “they are invading,” “they are collapsing the system,” “they are threatening the culture.”
It's the height of cynicism: I impoverish you and then blame you for fleeing poverty.
Africa and Latin America as fields of expulsion
Migration doesn't begin the moment someone crosses a border. It begins when a country becomes trapped in a cycle of:
Eternal debt.
Extraction of minerals and raw materials without added value.
Mandatory privatizations.
Fertile land converted into monocultures for export.
Local industries destroyed by free trade.
Wages incapable of sustaining a human life.
Africa and Latin America have been turned into sacrifice zones , where resources are exploited, extracted, and discarded.
And when there is nothing left, when people can no longer afford rice, milk or electricity, the only way out is the road, the desert, the jungle, the sea:
Children crossing the Darien Gap.
Young people missing in the Sahara.
Women sold in Libyan clandestine markets.
Entire families swallowed by the Mediterranean.
They don't emigrate by choice. They emigrate because staying means a slow death. But the North prefers to call it "illegal migration." The system that causes it is illegal.
The discourse that criminalizes while profiting
The irony: The same countries that are closing their borders today continue to steal talent from the South: doctors, nurses, engineers, cheap labor, and young people who will support their pensions.
The same countries that block visas buy African minerals at ridiculously low prices, Latin American oil, coffee, cocoa, tropical fruits, and cheap labor for their agriculture, construction, and cleaning.
The North needs the impoverished South:
To continue extracting.
To continue recruiting “flexible” workers.
To justify their moral superiority.
Migrants are needed, but not wanted. They are used, but not treated with dignity. They are made demands, but not recognized.
Forced migration vs. extracted wealth
The numbers make it clear:
Africa loses more than $100 billion a year to capital flight, tax evasion by foreign companies, and resource exploitation.
In Latin America , more than 70% of corporate profits from extractive sectors end up outside the region.
For every dollar of “development aid” that the South receives, between 3 and 7 dollars return to the North in the form of debt, interest, and repatriation of profits.
While these economies are being emptied out, more than 80 million people in the Global South migrate each year out of necessity, not by choice.
The equation is simple:
Wealth is extracted from the South → the population is impoverished → the population migrates → the migrant is criminalized → wealth continues to be extracted.
Glossary:
The Darién Gap (Darién Gap) — A dense jungle region connecting Colombia and Panama, considered one of the most dangerous and impassable migration routes in the world. In the text, it symbolizes the desperation of those fleeing South America to the North.
Externalization of borders — A geopolitical strategy whereby powerful nations (such as the EU or the US) finance and delegate migration control to third-party transit countries to detain migrants before they reach their legal territory. Example: European funding of patrols in the Sahara or centers in Libya.
Capital flight — The massive outflow of assets and money from a nation to a foreign country, often through corporate tax evasion or repatriation of profits, preventing the wealth generated from being reinvested in the country of origin.
Extractive sectors — Industries based on the extraction of natural resources (mining, oil, gas) for export as raw materials, without generating added value or industrialization in the producing country.
Global South — A geopolitical term that groups together developing countries (mainly in Latin America, Africa and Asia) that, beyond their geographical location, share a history of colonialism and economic inequality compared to the "Global North".
Sacrifice zones — Territories that are permanently degraded environmentally and economically due to intensive industrial exploitation, where the well-being of the local population is subordinated to the benefit of the global market.
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