migration
Talk tough and do nothing: The abject failure of Patel's migrant strategy
It is somehow fitting that during an Olympic Games a department of Her Majesty’s government is busy smashing records. In…
Lukashenko’s migrant warfare against the EU
When you have already forced a plane down with spurious claims of a bomb threat, just to arrest one dissident…
A hymn to the hummingbird — one of the most astonishing organisms on Earth
Along with coral reefs and their fish, tropical butterflies and birds of paradise, hummingbirds must be among the most beautiful…
Migrant smuggling is one of Lebanon’s last businesses
Ibrahim Lachine sold his mother’s furniture to pay for a place on a smuggler’s boat from Lebanon to Cyprus and…
The way Greece has conducted itself in this pandemic is an example to us all
Aristophanes was a comic genius long before the Marx Brothers, but he also gave good advice to the Athenians: stop…
Britain’s misguided approach to asylum is threatening lives
The news this week could easily have led with the deaths of 14 Afghan and Iraqi migrants in the English…
A cartoonish look at migration: Europe at the Donmar reviewed
Europe. Big word. Big theme. It was used by David Greig as the title of his 1994 play about frontiers…
Why flee France?
Pitching your tent for weeks on end in the cold and mud, with no power or plumbing. Running in a…
Iran’s boat people — and why they’re coming to Britain
When the migrant crisis started, about three years ago, it was seen as a mainly Syrian affair. Caught in the…
The swallows that herald spring
Sweet lovers, Shakespeare reminds us, love the spring. How can they not? All that wonderfully wanton colour, all that sensual…
The new age of the refugee
After years of estrangement in a foreign land, what can immigrants expect to find on their return home? The remembered…
300 signatures can be wrong. How about 2 million?
Name check 306 business people signed a letter to the Daily Telegraph saying that Britain would be better off outside…
Why Britain (and Europe) depends on migrants
It’s not about economics. It’s about our snobbish, slobbish culture
Britain’s determination to kill itself makes my blood boil
Gstaad The locals here in the beautiful Saanen valley are split over the migrant crisis. Switzerland does not belong…
Could a change of body language make a difference to American policing?
One of the most shocking items of recent news has been the bald statistic that the number of people shot…
Angela Merkel will survive – but will the soul of post-war Germany?
The migrant crisis is testing the country’s post-war idea of itself
Merkel’s grandstanding on Syrian refugees will lead to many more deaths at sea
By making them more likely to attempt the perilous journey to Europe, the German chancellor is luring would-be migrants to their deaths
Cameron’s talking to the wrong Libyan government. He should call my old driver
Certainly not the government that Cameron hopes will help fix the migrant crisis. He’d be better off talking to my old driver
Mykonos has turned into hell (I still blame Jackie Kennedy)
The wind is maddening and constant, and gets stronger as the sun falls below the horizon. The streets are lined…
If you really want to help refugees, look beyond the Mediterranean
It’s lazy and wrong just to focus on the migrants who make it here
Eritrean migrants face many dangers. Are we one of them?
A few weeks ago someone very dear to me passed on a question about The Spectator, asked them by a…
The ‘start-up cities’ of Ancient Greece
Honduras wants to establish start-up cities to experiment with alternative economic, regulatory, and legal systems. Could this concept help stop…
How Lampedusa copes when the migrant ships come in
Encounters with those who have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean
I got a call from Jeremy Hunt about health tourism — but he still doesn't get it
Ministers are finally acting on my warnings about health tourism. But they aren’t doing enough
Portrait of the week
Home Having recalled Parliament to debate British military action over Syria, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, found the government defeated,…
