A World Without Borders?

I saw this sticker on the Pont des Arts. It reads "Neither fatherland nor border. Freedom to travel." Posted by the Anarchist Federation, it challenges some of our most cherished notions in the West about the importance of the idea of a "homeland" with well-defined frontiers -- a nation-state that belongs to "us." In an increasingly global economy, people and goods are moving more and more freely across those borders. Yet we also hold onto the notion of differences between peoples.

It's interesting that Europeans are debating some of the same questions as Americans when it comes to who is allowed into the country (or the EU) and who is not. Drawing those boundaries have become important for some people in France for both economic and cultural reasons; many choose to blame immigrants for unemployment and for cultural decline. These are the same kinds of issues raised by those who want to build a wall along the Mexican border.

I'm not sure what the answers to these complicated questions are, but it seems clear that the conflicts will continue to grow. We want the benefits of a global economy without the costs that come with the increased mobility of money, jobs, goods, and people. It may be hard to have both.