Why Not Abolish All Borders?

I think Europe has very much over-stepped their authority. The European Court of Justice as ruled on a case from Belgium that undocumented people (illegal aliens for another word) cannot be expelled from Belgium when they have children that hold Belgian nationality. This came about because of a query from the Brussels Labour Court that involved the Zambrano family from the South American country of Colombia. So try to understand the "justice" of this: In 1999 Ruiz Zambrano and his wife and child ran away from Colombia during one of their many civil wars. They came to Belgium and applied for political asylum. Of course the application was rejected (Colombia had been in 'civil war' since the 60's between the government and narcotic barons -not an unusual occurance in that part of the world). So, Ruiz Zambrano had no right to be in Belgium and was ordered to return to his own country.

But who respects our laws anyway? Not this family. They refused to leave Belgium and Ruiz was able to obtain illegal work, signing a labour contract even without a residence permit or a work permit. Nothing was ever reported and nothing was ever done. Living in Belgium illegally was working out pretty well for them and soon they had two more children (so many children, a sure sign someone is not European in our times). There was no problem having these children who were given Belgian nationality. However, the econmic hard times caused Ruiz to lose his job, a job he never was entitled to have in a country he had no right to be in and which was all this time depriving a Belgian of that employment. Of course, Ruiz turned to the Belgian government for help, so generous with the money that other people worked for. However, when it was found Ruiz was in the country illegally and was not supposed to be allowed to work in the first place his request for unemployment benefits was rejected. Unfair!

But Ruiz did not get this far without knowing how to play the system to his advantage. He applied for residency again, this time based on his two most recent children who had Belgian nationality. This was refused as well. The Colombian might have been out of luck but requests for unemployment benefits go to the Brussels Labour Court and they sought the advice of the European Court -because they so wanted to help this poor man even though he had broken law after law to get where he was and they had no legal right to do anything for him. The European Court came to the rescue of the South American and now says that European member states are not allowed to expel asylum seekers with children who hold Belgian nationality. After all, if you expel the parents they really must take with them the children and this would violate their rights as EU citizens, never mind that they are only citizens because their parents broke the law in the first place. But, wait now, it gets better: the Court also says that the parents have to be able to work to ensure in the needs of their offspring, even if they do not hold a work permit!

Apologies if I sound wicked here but this angers me and seems very unfair. They have just turned all of the Belgian immigration laws upside down. Now anyone can come from anywhere for any reason to anywhere in Europe, come to Belgian and if they have a child they now have to be allowed to stay and provided with employment. But what if they cannot obtain employment? Well then it must mean that the government will have to pay them unemployment benefits. It is not as if Belgium and all of Europe is short of money these days correct? This seems very unfair. I am sorry if this is insensitive but the man had no right to be in the country in the first place and since that is so I do not think his children have any right to Belgian nationality. They are Colombians, not Belgians. I would assume, as a Colombian, their first language was Spanish rather than Dutch. Now with this ruling maybe there will be many more such people. Another language group would certainly be wonderful, yes? How many official languages can Belgium have; French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Arabic...how many? It is working out so well. Really I do not understand bringing in any other nationalities of any circumstances when, at the moment, the native Belgians themselves who have been together for centuries cannot be getting along with each other. We are in no position to do this.