The current immigration crisis occurring in Europe did not occur spontaneously. The crisis is the culmination of many decades of instability and politics in both Europe and elsewhere. The instability outside of Europe can directly be traced to European imperialism. During the late 19th to the early 20th century, much of Europe competed to see how much land each country could acquire, at the expense of the native peoples of the conquered lands. The effect was worsened during the period of decolonization post World War 2. The European powers began pulling out of their claims and granting independence to their former colonies. Many of these colonies suffered from a power vacuum and instability thanks to a lack of infrastructure that would benefit the populace.
These former colonies struggled in modernizing and industrializing as they did not have the resources to do so and lacked the knowledge of how to modernize. This led to a dependence on former colonial powers to provide resources, knowledge, and money to make improvements. To this day, many of these countries are suffering from the instability caused by colonization and subsequent decolonization. This instability is exacerbated by constant European intervention, “ recast in the more benevolent language of ‘democratization,’ ‘reconstruction,’ ‘securitization,’ and ‘development”’(Morrissey 494) continues to hinder the development in these nations and weakens their ability to act as self-sufficient nations. This instability and lack of modernization coupled with isolationist policies from European states have worsened the issue of migration. Migrants want to leave their countries due to instability and strife for a better place to live but are unable to make it there due to European immigration policies that severely limit immigration into Europe. This leads to more illegal crossings into Europe, which tend to be less safe and result in more harm and danger for the migrants.