At the end of odysseys involving leaking boats and looting traffickers, these migrants are forcing their way into the Channel Tunnel. They have blocked traffic and commerce. They have provoked a flare-up of that perennial condition called Anglo-French friction. They have drawn the ire of The Daily Mail (trumpet for a lot of what’s worst in Britain). The paper thinks it may be time to deploy the army.

But bringing in the military, or building walls, will resolve nothing. The 3,000 or so desperate people in Calais are part of a far bigger phenomenon. More than 100,000 refugees or migrants have entered Europe across the Mediterranean so far this year. A not insignificant number have drowned. War, oppression, persecution and economic hardship — combined with the magnetic accessibility even in the world’s poorest recesses of images of prosperity and security — have created a vast migratory wave. From Milan’s central train station to the streets of Calais its impact is apparent. Give me some of that, the disinherited proclaim.

Europe has mostly shrugged. Piecemeal small-mindedness, in 28 national iterations, has been the name of the game. There has been no unity or purpose. After much hand-wringing and wrangling, and pressure from hard-pressed Italy, European leaders did agree to share the “burden” of some 40,000 refugees, a paltry number. More than 3.5 million refugees are now in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, countries far less prosperous than European nations. A continent’s shame is written in the migrants’ misery.

European countries have a history of turning back desperate refugees — and regretting it subsequently. The European Union came into being to stop the recurrent wars that left millions homeless, with no possibility of return. It may seem quaint to recall the Union’s ideals; it is also necessary to its survival. Where is the statesman’s voice that rises above the pusillanimous chorus of petty calculation and self-regard?

Sure, there are excuses. Unemployment is high, growth low or nonexistent. Freeloading on European welfare by those who have not paid for it stirs anger. But these are not reasons for closing doors. The migrant numbers, while large, are absorbable by a community of more than half a billion people. What is needed is a coordinated policy that offers a legal route for migrants — and the political determination to reimagine a can-do Europe. The current European failure is one of imagination and will. The euro crisis cannot be an alibi for inaction, both internally and in countries like Libya where European responsibility is clearly engaged. The European idea must recover its luster.