Until recently, the sheer scale of illegal migration to Europe has made it difficult to analyse the causes. But Mediterranean crossings in ramshackle craft have begun to fall; the latest wave of refugees from the Syrian civil war has subsided; and what pollsters call the “salience” of immigration to British voters has lowered. So when better than now to step back and take another look at a problem that has been poisoning British, European and American politics since before the start of this century, and has driven an upsurge in populism across the Continent — and probably contributed to Brexit too?
Before the next bloodbath abroad, then, before the next wave of desperate migrants, before the next new channel opens (like the channel opening through