The left has to get it in front of the problem instead of dwelling on the human interest romance. That will only get us so far. I linked to Alon Levy's blog post because it is very much relevant to the situation today. Immigration and asylum are de facto conflated because that is what's happening. Something that the legislation of the nineties was supposed to keep apart but is failing today. Most refugees will stay. Indeed most of the asylum seekers who have been denied still stay. We have an asylum system that is neither very humane nor very stringent. Likewise immigration is handled in a hotchpotch, non-transparent, and non-strategic way. The left has to find a workable alternative that doesn't scream 'Open borders for everyone' before the usual dark nativist dynamics set in. What's happening now will not work.

Also, even if it is received opinion that fences never work, fences will be built regardless and sometimes they do work (enough). So it's useless to harp on about them.

_{Schengen is toast!}