Italy alone took in 30,000 "immigrants" from Tunisia in the last few months following the revolutionary overthrow of the old regime. Thus far, Europeans have been unable to stem the tide of humanity from failing states (not "failed", exactly, but well on their way thanks to rampant corruption, "big man" politics and cultural decline).

These kinds of numbers constitute a threat to Europe that some see as akin to the mass migrations of Germanic tribes into the weakened Roman Empire -- or in some ways, the migration of Europeans into the Americas then populated by aboriginal empires and fiefdoms.

Italy and other southern European nations have taken a short-sighted view to this abuse of its borders -- essentially, giving visas and amnesties to the economic queue-jumpers. Rather than face up to their responsibiities as the gatekeepers of Europe, they allow these masses of people to wander north into the relatively more prosperous welfare states of France, Germany and Denmark. Let the chumps up north deal with these de facto colonizers -- we've got other problems to deal with, like how we're going to spend the northerners' Euros on our pensions for our still-dark haired retirees.

If slow-brained bureaucrats in Europe have concluded that all Tunisians are legitimate refugees by virtue of the revolution (which is now effectively over, even if no one yet knows what will replace the old dictator), then the continent will need to prepare not merely for these tens of thousands, but millions of "immigrants" from across the newly-lit Arab world. Indeed, why stop there? If Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians and Bahrainis follow the precedent, what is to stop the residents of virtually every country to the south except Israel and South Africa from claiming shelter on economic or humanitarian grounds?

The revolutions in the Arab world are supposed to end the use of Europe as a safety valve for maladjusted and kleptocratic states. Yet the test case of Tunisia shows events have only exacerbated the problem. The people have chosen not to remake their country with a new democracy, but to get out while the getting's good.

In these circumstances, it is understandable, even laudable for France to close its borders to Italy. Now the gatekeepers of Europe will have a greater incentive to deal with the issues rather than passing them on to their neigbors.

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist