Why is Europe becoming increasingly resistant to immigration? Images of thousands of people swimming desperately, scrambling over rocks or wading through the sea in the hope of reaching Spain's tiny North African enclave of Ceuta have once again thrust Europe into the global spotlight.

The narratives of the right are seeping into mainstream EU policy, and Spain finds itself increasingly isolated in its humanitarian stance on borders

The recent wave of migrants into Spain's Ceuta has triggered humanitarian and border-control emergency measures by Spain and other European countries, while it has also laid bare…