Max Tallberg
The greatest part of the inequality of the world stems from the differences between countries. This grievance is exacerbated by the fact that people cannot do anything about it themselves, if their home country does not offer genuine possibilities to prosper. So, it all depends on where a person happens to be born. And if a person wants to do something about it, for example to move to another country, it is not allowed.
Open borders would be a solution to this. This would mean that each person could freely choose where they want to live. If people could do this – for instance to move to a country where there is work available – the problem related to global inequality in a sense would be solved. A person is likely to support a world of open borders if they think that where one is born should not influence one’s future. You should also support a politics promoting freedom of movement if you think that all should be able to influence their own future—to succeed in life. Freedom of movement should be a fundamental right and all people should be able to freely decide their place of residence in the global world today.
In practice, the politics of open borders would mean that people could freely move from one country to another without hindrances, extensive bureaucracy, and long applications. The thought is that people coming from elsewhere would not be treated any differently to the original population, and immigrants would receive the same financial, social and political rights as the original population in a short amount of time.
Research has also found that, all things considered, immigration has a positive effect on the economy. Immigrants generate on average 1,2 new jobs in addition to their own job, and there is no evidence that they would use more welfare state services than the original population. Migration could also lead to other financially favourable consequences: people earning more in their new country could send money to their home country. Therefore, different kinds of skills would also be better utilised in the world.
The GDP of the world could through open borders increase between 67-147 percent according to different estimates. Therefore, an obvious question arises: why is this not explored further? And the answer is also obvious: the very question is politically volatile because of people’s prejudices. The problem then is prejudice, not actual diversity, as migration is disagreeable only to those who have prejudices related to the subject. The claim that emigration would harm the economy of the country is not supported in research, so none should have reason to oppose it.
Equality between territories could more likely be realised through free migration. In theory, free migration would result in wage levels increasing in the country of departure and decreasing in the destination country. In the end, at least in theory, wages would be at the same level and migration would end.
It is also important to consider – especially regarding those with negative attitudes towards free movement – that by no means would all people want to move to another country. In a poll made in 2012, 640 million adults, that is 13 percent of the world’s population, estimated that they would move to another country if they had the chance. In a poll published in 2018 that number was over 750 million. At the same time, it should be stressed that those who say they want to move, do not necessarily mean that in reality they would do so. Open borders would also make it easier for a person to move back to their country of origin.
Migration would not happen right away but rather it could take years, even decades. Additionally, wage levels would begin to even out when some people moved from one country to another. At the same time, wages in the poorer countries would increase because they would have fewer working citizens.
Sources:
Jones, Reece (2019). Introduction. In Open Borders: In Defense of Free Movement – Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation. The University of Georgia Press, Georgia.
Sager, Alex (2020). Against Borders: Why the World Needs Free Movement of People. Rowman & Littlefield International, London.
Sharma, Nandita (2019). Disposessing Citizenship. In Jones, Reece (ed.): Open Borders: In Defense of Free Movement—Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation. The University of Georgia Press, Athens.
Tallberg, Max (2022): A citizen of a new time: A vision of a better world. www.avisionofabetterworld.net.
Cdn.org: The fiscal impact of immigration
A review of the evidence (April 2020)
https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/fiscal_space_paper_final.pdf (cited 18th October 2021)
Migrations 10.12.2018
https://news.gallup.com/poll/245255/750-million-worldwide-migrate.aspx (cited 29th December 2021)
