Un Monde Sans Frontières
It was reported today that Australia's immigration detention centres are close to full, and a new detention centre needs to be built. Already on news site articles, the same old comments and arguments have appeared in their hundreds.
"Send them back", "they're all criminals" and "queue-jumping illegal immigrants" are three of the most common phrases you will find.
It's not just here in Australia; the UK and USA, for example, have had their fair share of refugees and migrants of a political or economic nature, and it happens in many other countries as well. Predictably perhaps, the "send them back" type responses seem to crop up in those instances too.
What ARE borders though, and why do they mean so much to us as a species? Why do we even do it, when putting up such borders (including borders like the Berlin Wall) can lead to misery, resentment, inequality or even death?
Is it really so hard to imagine a world without borders? When I moved to Australia I had to fill in forms, get checked out by police, satisfy various criteria, and even prove that my marriage was genuine! Why should that be? Why shouldn't anyone be free to live anywhere they like on this planet?
If you consider the arguments that will be made against this, it becomes clear (to me at least) that the issues arising can all be handled without resorting to a kind of siege mentality. Any country could continue to control the influx of animals, food, seeds and so on that would be harmful to the local eco-system, law enforcement agencies would continue to cooperate globally to track down criminals and so it goes on.
For those who fear the erosion of "national identity" just look to the way people identify with the regions or towns they are from (here in Perth, for example, there's the whole "north of the river" versus "south of the river" rivalry).
No, all of those things are just excuses to keep the "status quo".
In Europe, citizens of EU member states now enjoy freedom of movement and trade between those countries. In all honesty I can't think of a single argument why this shouldn't happen globally.
Yes there is potential for a sudden influx of refugees in one country or another, however that would be minimised if all borders were to open up simultaneously. This is small picture thinking however!
Let's look at the bigger picture:
It would become practically impossible for a tyrant, or tyrannical regime, to set up as an absolute power. People would quite literally vote with their feet.
Economic downturns and financial hardship would be less likely to occur as people would be free to go anywhere their skills are needed. A truly mobile workforce.
No country would spend billions on managing a "refugee problem" because there would be no refugees, just people moving from one part of the globe to another, just as they might move from one part of town to another.
Wars – let's be honest, there will be conflicts between different groups for as long as the human race exists. A world without borders would not stop that, you just need to look at TV programmes like "Neighbours from Hell" to understand that fact! However, it is likely that such conflicts would be more localised, and certainly less devastating. The potential for a "world war" would be significantly reduced, as would other major international conflicts that we've seen far too many of in the last 2000 years.
Now I'm not so naive that I don't realise there would be practical issues to be resolved in such a world, however if our existing governments and leaders aren't capable of resolving those then we're in serious trouble anyway.
Just to get people /really/ pissed off with my ideas – go have a read of this interesting article on the subject of a world without borders. OK I admit that it's loaded with political dogma, however it is at least a different perspective to the one we're usually presented with, and such food for thought is always good for the mind and soul.
In all seriousness, what purpose do borders really serve, and why do we bother with them?
