November 10, 2023
Reading the latest report from the Inter-American Development Bank on what they call the positive impact that migration would have on urbanisation, got me to thinking of the agenda of open borders and why it is a bad idea for the short to medium term.
Many of us are still very nationalistic, we will never be accepting of many others who are not of our same tribe. It’s just the way human being are. We may tolerate one or two migrants, but a free flowing border leads to chaos. We are seeing that in the greatest country on earth, the USA.
The thing is, we cannot sacrifice people in the short term to save people in the long term. If we burden and tire out who we have now, then what will we have left? That is exactly the kind of burden free flowing borders represent. We accept the burdens from other countries, at the expense of the living in their country now, to save who exactly? It can’t be my following generation because you are trying to ensure that they never grow up because we are being forced to take care of others.
Secondly, if we accept the problems of other countries, through culture and adoption of practices, then don’t we introduce them to our society and their problem becomes ours? Why would we want that?
While we understand that there is a need for migrants, both skilled and unskilled, but there is a level to which we should be able to accept them and at what levels. We should always treat foreigners with kindness and dignity and respect, but there is only so much people can tolerate and that is the problem. We are only people, full of failings and inadequacies and inherent biases that make us who we are.
We must be mindful of how we can become so cavalier with the generation of today to save a tomorrow that is not promised to any of us.