What is migration for? How national needs wrestle with a basic human desire
June 29, 2026 (Conversation) Migration debates often begin in the wrong place. They ask how many migrants a country should accept, which migrants should be prioritised and how quickly they should arrive. These are important questions, but they are not the first question. The first question is more basic: what is migration for? The answer is not simple, because migration serves more than one purpose. It’s a tool of economic management. It’s a response to demographic change. It’s part of how countries remain connected to the world. But it is also something deeper: an expression of the human condition itself.