Do not send me your huddled masses

THERE is a certain rhythm to the European response to Mediterranean refugee tragedies. News of a disaster emerges. Leaders issue profound words of regret, accompanied by solemn pledges that such calamities cannot be allowed to happen again. A meeting is hastily arranged. But soon word comes that one country or another is unhappy about a particular proposed remedy, be it refugee-sharing or commonly resourced search-and-rescue missions. European officials begin to downplay expectations of a radical change in policy. The leaders meet, and argue. Some ideas are squashed, others sent to die in Europe’s bureaucratic machinery. What is left is trumpeted, not inaccurately, as a hard-won victory.