Pictures of desperate migrants fleeing the war ravaged regions of the Middle East and the economically ravaged regions of Africa and Asia have been with us for decades. But only recently has the pace, scale and the attendant TV and digital media coverage overwhelmed us and the authorities. Countries in the Eurozone are scrambling to cope with the crisis, but the response is not uniform. Some countries like Germany with their Willkommenskultur, have taken in the lion’s share of the refugees from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan. But, as is also becoming clear, there are limitations to how many refugees Germany and eventually the EU can accommodate. However, granting asylum is a temporary fix, a Band-Aid. Let us look at the problem from a different perspective.

As a scientist, let me use an analogy from physics. Imagine two chambers A and B filled with air and connected by a tube with a valve. Chamber A has air at a higher pressure than B. The natural tendency of air is to flow from regions of high pressure A to regions of low pressure B. How do we prevent air flowing from A to B?

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