WHY ARE PEOPLE CROSSING OCEANS AND JUMPING BORDERS?

Every day in this world, thousands of people risk their lives to cross oceans, swim rivers, and jump borders. They leave behind everything they know, family, culture, home, not because they want to, but because they have no choice. The West loves to paint these migrants as lawbreakers, invaders, or burdens, but few ever ask: Why is this happening in the first place? The answer is simple: centuries of European and American exploitation, theft, and destruction created the very crisis they now complain about.

A World Built on Pillaging and Violence

For centuries, powerful nations; Spain, France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and later the United States, pillaged entire continents. They stole land, enslaved people, extracted resources, and left nations broken and impoverished. When they talk about their “superiority,” they conveniently forget that their wealth wasn’t built through hard work or genius, but through conquest and brutality.

• Africa was gutted. Its people kidnapped, its resources stolen, and its borders arbitrarily drawn to ensure conflict and instability. Even after slavery ended, Europe and America continued exploiting Africa through colonial rule, and today, multinational corporations still extract its wealth while its people remain in poverty.

• Latin America was bled dry. Gold, silver, and agricultural goods were taken while indigenous cultures were decimated. When these nations tried to stand on their own, the U.S. and Europe crushed their efforts through coups, assassinations, and economic warfare.

• Asia was carved up and dominated. India was drained by Britain, China was humiliated and forced into opium addiction, and Southeast Asia was torn apart by colonial rule.

The global South has never been given a fair chance to develop because every time it started to, Western powers intervened to maintain their control.

The Superiority Myth

Western countries often claim they are more advanced, more organized, and more capable of running a society. But how did they get there? Through centuries of stolen labor, stolen land, and stolen resources. If Africa, Latin America, and Asia had been allowed to develop without interference, imagine where they would be today. The West didn’t create wealth, they hoarded it.

Back to the point at hand. Yeah, I know people don´t want to hear this shit, but this is why today’s migration crisis exists. When people flee from war, poverty, and violence, they are fleeing the consequences of Western imperialism. Countries like the U.S. complain about migrants at their borders but fail to mention how they backed dictatorships, funded wars, and imposed economic policies that kept these countries poor and unstable.

If Wealth Had Been Shared…

If, instead of plundering the world, these powerful nations had invested in global prosperity, the world would look very different today. Benefiting them in the process. There would be no desperate need for people to leave their homes in search of safety and opportunity. But the West has never been interested in fairness, only in maintaining its dominance.

So when you see a migrant crossing a border, don’t ask, “Why are they coming here?” Ask instead, “What did we do to their country to make them leave?”

This is the reality they don’t want to face. But history doesn’t lie.

Thanks for reading. Abrazos.

Diego Rojas