The Past Speaks

Image courtesy of the BBC.

It’s well known that the biological father of Apple founder Steve Jobs was a migrant from Syria. If Jobs’s father  had not been barred from enterring the United States by a proto-Donald Trump, there would have been no Steve Jobs, and thus no Apple, and no iPads, etc. To illustrate this point,  the artist Banksy has created a mural in the French town of Calais that depicts Steve Jobs c. 1985 as a migrant. Calais, which is a collection point for migrants attempting to sneak into the UK, is one of the places in France where support for the anti-immigrant Front National has surged in recent months.

The mural is essentially a rebuke to anti-immigrant politicians in France, the UK, the US and other advanced economies who fail to realize that dynamic, young, risk-taking migrants are a net economic asset a great addition to any nation’s gene pool, even if they don’t engage in entrepreneurship themselves.  Banksy, who is himself a rather successful entrepreneur appears to grasp what multiple bankrupt Donald Trump fails to understand.

This video illustrates how the advanced economies ought to be handling the Syrian refugee crisis.