Francesco Vacchiano’s article “On Frequent Flyers and Boat People: Notes on Europe, Crisis, and Human Mobility” raised many interesting points and critiques on the European Union’s response to the influx of migrants, and more generally, its use of economic, rather than humanitarian, motives of government agencies.

In previous classes and articles, we have read and discussed potential factors that cause receiving states to deny migrants documentation, the two largest ones being economic-based (facilitation of a vulnerable labor force) and social-based (racialization). I thought Vacchiano’s point that the changing and tightening migration policies in the EU are, in part, due to the richest population wanting to create an imbalance in resources favoring themselves was an astute observation that adds to the socioeconomic reasons already outlined. Vacchiano scorns this wealthy population, as well as the policy-makers of the EU, for their consistently economic and labor driven response rather than humanitarian. One fact in particular stuck out to me – the Italian government’s response after the October 3, 2013 incident. It was hard to fathom that a country, as Vacchiano described, could act in a complete paradox, and honor the deceased yet arrest the survivors.It seems that, despite the staggering statistics of death and destruction that arrive everyday, governments are unwilling to take the moral high ground. Finishing the article left me questioning how many deaths become too many, to no longer be able to rationalize economic motives as acceptable?