When borders do matter: international migration and identity - Global equity and migration

8 important questions on When borders do matter: international migration and identity - Global equity and migration

What is associated with the nation-state?

  • Since the birth of modern nationalism during the period of the American and French Revolutions, when subjects were transformed into citizens, allegiance and a sense of belonging have been associated with the nation-state.
  • It was assumed that armies no longer fought to promote the interests of monarchs, but instead on behalf of a set of abstract ideals associated with the purportedly universal "rights of man" together with larger national interests.
  • "Belonging" to the nation-state required that each citizen, irrespective of cultural, geographic, or religious identity, commit to the defense of these shared values.

What does the nation-state claim?

Every modern nation-state claims authority over territory, borders, and people. Belief in the indivisible sovereignty of states has been at the core of political consciousness in the West since the Enlightenment, and the principle was eagerly embraced by newly independent states in Africa, South Asia, and East Asia during the postcolonial era.

What has prompted debate about the state system?

The growth of supranational entities such as the EU, together with the rapid pace of economic globalization and efforts toward international economic cooperation, has prompted debate over the moral legitimacy of the exclusionary state system.
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What called for more open borders?

With one-quarter of the world's population living in poverty, and with the gap between rich and poor states growing wider under conditions of economic globalization, the call for more open borders on grounds of moral principle gathered force during the 1990s.

What are the three main quota categories? Which one is often preferred?

Of the three main quota categories - refugee, family reunification, and economic migrants - most receiving states will focus their attention on the recruitment of highly skilled professionals, those women and men who are most likely to have an immediate positive impact on the host nation's economic, scientific, and intellectual well-being.

What has becoming one of the most important functions of modern states?

Stopping, or at least regulating, such unwanted migration has become one of the most important functions of modern states, deemed essential to national security, the maintenance of social peace, and the preservation of jobs for citizens who lack special training.

What did opponents of international migration argue?

Opponents of international migration argued that opening borders was no solution to grinding global poverty, and that instead it was the responsibility of sovereign states to redouble their efforts to assist developing countries in achieving economic future for each citizen.

Why is immigration not the answer?

  • International immigration will never significantly address the problems associated with the North-South divide.
  • No matter how targeted admissions policies become, the poverty, hunger, environmental degradation, and political instability facing the majority of the world's population will not be ameliorated by flight across international borders. 

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