We should be deeply troubled by the evasive and shallow coverage of the Essex lorry deaths

As the daughter of an immigrant, I know all too well that liberal idealism about migration is vacuous nonsense. Only those without experience of the phenomenon could regard it as metaphysically “good”. The reality is paradoxical: seeking success abroad is admitting failure in your own country; “building a new life” is cultural self-mutilation; Opportunity is Adversity with brochure gloss.

After the Nigerian civil war ended in 1970, my dad migrated to Britain, grafting his way into a happy middle-class existence, married to an English woman and running his own business. Could he have found an easier, more unruffled happiness in a version of Nigeria that was not so dysfunctional?

Questions like this are uncomfortable, but important to ask. Many see migration as humanity striding towards a colourful borderless utopia. Mixed-race kids like me know we are the kaleidoscopic product of a world that is fundamentally broken.

Hence why I can’t help but bristle at the evasive and shallow discussion around the Essex lorry deaths. The Left scooped last week’s tragedy into the sweeping embrace of its own agenda with maternal quickness. Diane Abbott immediately called for “safe and legal” routes for refugees into the UK – even though there was no evidence the deceased were such. It has since emerged that many paid thousands to be smuggled into Britain for work.