Opinion: Let us into your horrible country!

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A big part of my loss of callow innocence came from visiting the Middle East and finding the place full of servile migrant workers from Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Enduring great hardships to get work as a maid or serf in the United States I could understand; but how bad, I wondered, must these places be if people are desperate to leave them and move to countries most westerners would never want to visit in the first place, all for the privilege of making less a few bucks a day while getting kicked around by Arabs (who as far as I could tell treated the help even worse than Americans do)?

Wonder no more. The last few days’ immigration news from all over the world not only puts America’s so-called immigration crisis in perspective but makes clear just how lousy this ol’ Planet Earth really is. I wish I could visit my teenage self and say ‘You think Atlantic City sucks? People will risk getting burned alive for the prospect of living in a South African shack.’ This headline from Morocco sort of sums it all up: ‘39 illegal immigrants arrested in Western Sahara.’

You may think of Morocco as a place people want to leave, and indeed the illegals were apparently trying to make their way to the Canary Islands. But the lesson is well learned: No matter how bad one place is, there’s always someplace worse.