Velvet Ropes and Poor Doors

Frida Ghitis : The West 's fear of migrants has one consistent feature: it is hysterically focused on poor, “illegal” migrants.

She says the rich are able to collect safes full of visas, passports, and residency documents for their awful ruling class families.

The poor, on the other hand, must go through the gates of hell in search of a better life, Ghitis writes.

Frida Ghitis: The European Union , for its part, has experienced its own extralegal migration primarily via the maritime smuggling of people.

She says the EU , despite being known as relatively generous toward its citizens, is capable of being perfectly punitive and cruel to these luckless maritime travelers.

Ghitis says the truly elite have always coveted global mobility as a hedge against adverse events.

The Spanish visa was quite successful at attracting the global wealthy, bringing in billions of euros from Russians , post-Brexit English , and especially wealthy Chinese people.

It helped drive up Spanish housing prices, and Spain decided to kill the program this year .

Portugal also recently changed its golden visa rules to exempt real estate to ease the pressure, while Ireland killed its program.