Hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees are trying to escape war for a better life in Europe, where governments are struggling to agree how to respond.
Conflict and the spread of poverty has displaced people in huge numbers -- some four million Syrians alone are fleeing their homeland -- and left many with little choice but to undertake perilous journeys in the hope of reaching Europe's shores.
Political leaders are caught between the urgent need to ease the humanitarian crisis, and fears that large numbers of migrants will strain government resources and lead to even longer jobless queues.
But for countries that agree to take more refugees from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Afghanistan, the payoff could be significant.
Those nations could benefit from an influx of new, largely young, workers, and may even become home to future stars of the business world.
"Migrants who take huge risks to get where they want to go often tend to be more entrepreneurial people ... that may also help to keep an aging economy vibrant," noted Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank.
History is studded with migrants who have made it to the top. Some fled persecution, others left their native lands in search of more opportunity.
George Soros is one of the most famous examples. Soros fled communist Hungary in 1947 after surviving the Nazi occupation of his home country during World War II. He emigrated first to England and later settled in the U.S.
In the early 1960s, Soros started a hedge fund. He's best known for betting big against the British pound, which is said to have netted him an estimated $1 billion some 30 years later.
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