"The repression policies will not stop illegal immigrants from coming from Africa: the expectations to earn a lot of money in Europe carry much more weight." This was said by Jean Louis Arcand, director of the Finance and Development Center at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva (Switzerland), while visiting the University of Navarra. The expert gave an opening session at the III Development Week, an international congress on poverty and development, organized by the Navarra Center for International Development of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS).

Arcand said that potential immigrants think that "in Europe they will earn 6.000 euros per month," a perception nourished by those who have returned to Africa, "who don´t want to recognize that their travel was a failure and that they were living with eight people in a room measuring twelve square meters."

At the University of Navarra, the professor presented his last research concerning the relationship between colonizers and indigenous populations and the way in which this interaction has determined the economic development in regions conquered by Europeans. These studies, based on data from 64 countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia, are supported by two variables: the level of development of the indigenous population at the time of the first contact with the colonizers and the deaths of Indians by the colonizers.

The way of colonizing, the cause of underdevelopment

His research offers a new vision regarding the classical literature on the economic development of colonies: "The cause of underdevelopment is not the colonization, but the way of colonizing."

"One important consideration for explaining the differences between the institutions is the protection against the risk of expropriation. This helps us see how economic activity has been allowed to be developed in some countries, but not in others" he said. One of the clearest examples is the difference between Haiti and Dominican Republic, which have identical geographies but "their history of colonization is different and thus, they also have different subsequent developments."

"Moreover, with the arrival of the colonizers, divisions in indigenous populations, who were living peacefully five hundred or even one thousand years ago, were strategically created; this is the case of Ruanda with the hutu and the tutsi," he pointed out.

In other nations such as Nigeria and Central African Republic, sometimes hatred among the population is fueled by local politicians who try to "manipulate citizens," often making reference to the religious issue, he said. On the contrary, he noted that, according to his experience, in countries such as Burkina Faso, Senegal y Mali, "in West African Islam is totally tolerant."