If everyone eliminated passports and opened their borders, wouldn't that eliminate immigration problems?

Question

My reasoning being that if it was suddenly easy to settle in any country in the world, then countries with governments with oppressive regimes, poor welfare or bad economies would suddenly be facing mass exodus from their countries and would have to do all they could to make their countries desirable places to live again or face a complete loss of population - along with their taxes, wealth, business, growth etc.
And wouldn't this ultimately solve many many world issues?

Why does nobody ever read the whole question?

It still amazes me that so much animosity and outrage is stirred up by a very logical, if simple, idealistic concept.

It's like me saying "Why can't we all get along" only to be slapped down with "Because we're all different and selfish and xenophobic. And mankind will NEVER EVOLVE BEYOND THAT!!"

If you people represent a cross-section of popular opinion then is there ANY hope for mankind?

Answer 1

It is an ideal to aim towards. A hundred years ago there were hardly any restrictions at all, you could travel between most countries without even owning a passport. Then bureaucracies and paranoia took hold.

In most of Western Europe border controls have been abolished, and you wonder why we ever had them. It may make it marginally easier for crooks to get away, but realistically very few terrorists were ever caught at borders anyway; look, the 9-11 attackers, the Madrid bombers, the London bombers were all legally present in those countries, border controls made no difference.

We should work toward removing the differences in living standards that make people want to move. Those who are serious about the "threat" of mass migration should be campaigning for fairer trade, and for our governments to stop supporting dictatorships that not only oppress people, but allow multinationals to exploit them. As long as rich countries take an irresponsible attitude toward the rest of the world, they will face this problem.

It may surprise some to know that most people would rather not have to leave their countries to live as second-class non-citizens in hostile countries far from everything they know. They would rather be given a decent opportunity to live with dignity in their own countries.

Answer 2

I think it would crush some countries that couldn't handle sudden population explosions. Each country has it's natural resources and if a sudden influx of people enter the country, the country in question could go bankrupt.

Most people trying to leave an oppressive regime are poor and can't hop a plane to Canada or the USA or France. They would just go to the neighboring country.

If the North Koreans all went to China, China would have a very hard time supporting the North Koreans. China is, though large, actually a poor country and simply can barely handle the people they have there now.

Also, until the world adopts one form of government, the open border policy would foster resentment and allow terrorists to come and go freely with no chance for capture. There would be suicide bombings in all the cities of all the countries the terrorists aren't allied with.

Answer 3

The US is already swamped with illegal aliens.We have far too many poor people coming to this nation for jobs,and entitlements.They are lowering the wages and the work standards for all legal Americans.We welcome legal immigrants that do things the lawful way but not the illegals. We need our defined borders,to have open borders would result in world chaos and would destroy the more popular country's under the crush of humanity.
No to open borders.We here in the USA need to secure our borders,deport all the illegal aliens and place a 10 year moratorium on all legal immigration,until we can get a handle on this huge problem.It has become a very major issue here in the states.The cost to this nation for this "cheap labor" has become far too expensive to maintain.
No amnesty

Answer 4

Its a very idealistic and simplistic view without considering the implications for the structures of the welfare and social equality built up over the centuries in the developed nations.These structures are the only things that separate the 1ST world nations from the likes of china in which you can see how the very poor are being exploited as slave labor instead of having basic protections afforded to us.If these protections were not devised in the free world there would have been very little chance of our countries getting to the basic standard of living that even the very poor have in the west.

Answer 5

wake up fella weve got open boarders allready,yeh ok its not exactly the flood gates but its definately a trickle and so have the states this is done to stir public opinion so we will except all these bloody ID cards and the biometric fingerscanners and the bloody face recognition cctv cameras to make profiles of the people ,the more people they let in the more they enslaveand can control.and the answer to your actual question is, no it wouldnt be a good idea and my answer to your actual question is so vast so im just gonna say no.

Answer 6

Talk about a world utopia, I wish it were that easy! Unfortunately not every country can do that with every other country around the world. There is not just a security issue, but there are countries that keep their boarders to keep their people in like you mentioned. They don't care about how desirable their country is to 'low' people, they only care about their own comforts and goals.

Western Europe, for a long time not sure these days, had a very easy flow of people from country to country with next to no hassle. I remembered being surprised that they didn't even check our passports when we went from Germany to Austria and back. Then we discovered that it was that easy to move around most of Western Europe. I still remember when going into Canada was about that easy too. of course these countries, at least at that time, weren't worried about their own people running away nor an influx of hostiles because they were on good relations with these other countries.

It takes different countries to on the same level when looking toward that end. They have to have nothing to fear from one another and a good working relationship that benefited them. In our world today, it's just not realistic anymore especially with hostile groups who aren't always associated with a government.

Answer 7

The end, unfortunately, doesn't justify the means, when the means means illegals who already cost us billions for their health care, the education of their children, cell space in jails; with drug lords who bring in dope that kills Americans while they openly kill Americans at the borders -- but God forbid, a border patrolman should shoot a drug lord. We lose jobs to illegals, who are mostly uneducated people who add nothing to our country, and a govt. who turns a blind eye in favor of, guess who? Yeah, big business. They love illegals because they love money above morality. Then of course there's that little problem of hidden terrorists crossing with the mobs. So while opening the borders is a noble concept, I think it would finish the job of sending us spiraling down into a third world country.

Answer 8

Did you overlook approximately guidance and regulations touching directly to emergency care at hospitals? i think of you probably did. the popular public college systems and different public centers would decline in high quality, as now you have a ton of illegals that are actually not paying taxes (cuz they don't have a SSN), inflicting a great "drain" on the financial gadget as an entire. i do no longer think of you have thought your ridiculous thought by using. Our very own electorate are suffering on the poverty stages in each city, slightly waiting to take great thing with reference to the popular public centers that are there. Now you desire to grant an unlawful Mexican the possibility for a unfastened trip? does not make sense to me...

Answer 9

Very bad idea....doesn't the US have enough of the world's poor slipping into our country everyday? Who is going to pay to feed, educated & give medical care to them? Why would any corrupt country (except the USA) care if all their lazy, uneducated leave to go to other countries? Mexico has shown they are proponents of this by published a comic book showing their lazy, uneducated how to sneask into our country - calling them heroes if they make it...
You need to rethink your assumption...

Answer 10

It speed economic growth in certian countries becaues of a flood of people. The reality is people are very patriotic and protective of thier culutre and identifity. Wealthy nations would benefit from a cheaper labor pool to work with, and the poor country would benefit from skill workers coming over because they want lower cost of living. I think it will happen in the next 40 years because of technology, and communication innovantions. Wont slove all problems, but it drive down absolute proverty in a lot of poor nations.