The last Italian will probably be born in 2225 and the Italian ethnic population will be extinct by 2307. This is the apocalypse that awaits us. As is now clear to everyone, immigration is not the only solution to the demographic problem in Europe. Family policies have in a whole range of states, when pursued seriously, yielded significant results. They are, however, extremely long processes. In contrast, the fertility of immigrant families, of immigrant women, is vastly higher than that of European women, so at the moment we can only mitigate the effect, slow it down. In the face of this demo-graphic landscape, it becomes clear that combating illegal immigration is a priority if we do not want the apocalyptic scenario of the extin-ction of European peoples to be realized. A prospect that applies not only to Italy, but more or less to all other European countries, variously shifted in time.

The issue has a European dimension. Not only because it involves the entire continent, but because the Union has its own responsibili-ty. I have great respect for the EU institutions, but on the migration phenomenon the EU has made one of the biggest flops of all its initiati-ves. So, I don’t believe in «Europe-an solutions» of migration policies. I don’t believe because there is no will of the member states to pursue them in a coordinated way and because there are different sensiti-vities between individual countries and between the different political colors that the governments that take turns in our capitals may have. This makes it difficult to identify a collective and coordinated practi-cal solution on the part of the European Union. As I have learned in the course of my work over all these years, if and when the European Union puts in place migration policies that are serious about counte-ring illegal immigration, economic policies that make it easier for families, I will be the happiest per-son in the world. In the meantime, I think each member state has to start doing its part. So let’s see what Italy can do.

A few years ago there was a mini-ster of the interior who when he set out to try to stop landings succeeded. A success that tells us two things: first, that if we want to stop the illegal flows we are perfectly capable of being able to do so. Con-sequently, that these population shifts are by no means something inescapable, as we are instead being peddled by the mainstream narrative that it is an epochal phenomenon for which nothing can be done. On the contrary, like all geopoliti-cal phenomena, it can be governed. And it is extremely important to do so. But also extremely complex. It is a phenomenon that can be governed with investment and long-term planning. So it is not short-term, but it is medium to long-term.  However, it can be done.

Nonetheless, as long as we focus only on the emergency part, so stopping the landings, you can certainly do a very good job but you don’t go to solve the root of the problem. The vast majority, more than 80 percent, of those who migrate to the European Union are economic migrants. They are not immigrants entitled to any kind of protection, including the fancy ones that are provided by the Italian legal system, with paradoxical situations where the «right» to humanitarian protection and political asylum is granted simply because the journey to enter the country illegally has…caused stress to the immigrant. A harm that the twisting and fanciful interpretation that certain judiciary can apply to those illegal immigrants who by now have already firmly set foot within the country’s territory. So stopping landings is absolutely right. So is stemming the arrivals with international collaborative solutions. The recent agreement made by the Italian government with Albania so that up to a maximum of 36,000 migrants can be processed per year, so 3,000 per month, out of Italian territory and into Albanian territory is an extremely attractive solution. And it is no coinciden-ce that others have tried a similar path. Recently, the British prime minister had made the deal to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda, a somewhat more complicated destination than Albania because of the distance. But that kind of arrangement was rejected by British institutions, so now the government in London will proceed to draft new legislation that can pass the British Supreme Court’s scrutiny. It is objective, then, that an agreement to stem across the border the influx of illegal immigrants is a useful and viable path.