LONDON -- If you're reading this on a plane or in a hotel, you're part of the problem. But even if you're sitting snugly, smugly at home, you may not be the solution.
The problem is the mass movement of people. This is an expression of a fundamental right of free movement. The right is ancient; in modern times it has been incorporated in U.N. conventions and charters and is practiced every day by millions of persons.
But our fundamental needs for family and community, for education and health care, can be fulfilled only by fixed institutions, stable and continuous patterns of life. Which means that those who stay within that fixed community snarl suspiciously at the migrants and travelers because they disrupt our patterns and make use of what the settled people have created without seeming to contribute to it.
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