The world is our heaven. We all live in it and have a right to protect it. However, since the beginning of time, men have tried all sorts of techniques to maintain their dominance over each other. One of the best ways to assure that a group of people is more powerful and better off than another is by establishing borders. We have come to accept it as a norm to live in a segregated world.
There are many challenges facing our world, from global warming to poverty, which are capable of destroying life as we currently know it. Some of the biggest challenges we face as people are men-made, and with a little soul searching in the heart of the leaders of the world, many of these challenges could be met; none more pressing than figuring out a way to open up the world to the less fortunate.
Borders are a necessity in today’s world, but denying others access to part of the world based on some prejudice concept is unnatural. We are all citizens of this planet, whether the colors of our skin are different or our economical status unequal, we owe it to one another to make our environment better.
Recently, I heard a news report about Japan offering to pay Brazilians living there so they can return to Brazil. In Great Britain, there is a fierce debate currently happening in regards to legalize the status of the millions of people living in there illegally. Italy, France among other European countries have been dealing with illegal immigration from African countries for years, and now with the threat of terrorism, and a global recession on the rise, it becomes much more of an issue to find a quick solution. In the United States, it is a never-ending problem dealing with immigration policies.
What are the leaders of the free world supposed to do to maintain the safety, and prosperity of their population, while at the same time promoting access to their country to foreigners? Immigration is a headache for most of the G-20 countries because they accumulate too much of the world’s wealth, while subjecting most of the rest of the world to live in sub-standard conditions. Only South Africa represents the African continent in the G-20, and there is no African country in the G-8. If we are not being represented, we can not possibly expect policies that will promote our growth.
There is a great imbalance in the world’s order, and one of the surest ways for the less fortunate to seek better opportunities is by leaving their homeland. The big economies of the world think that people in sub-Sahara Africa really wants to abandon their homeland; they forced themselves to believe that Haitians want to risk their lives on small boats for the shores of Miami. If they were to look in the mirror of life, they would understand that the main reason those people are willing to risk it all is because they want better opportunities: Opportunities that they are unable to find in their homeland.
Some people would point to bad governance of those underdeveloped countries as reasons why their citizens want to flee, others would say it’s because of civil wars, lack of education, corruption, persecution and on it goes, but truthfully, people often migrate because they want a better life, and without economic might, there can never be a stop to the flow of illegal migration.
It is time to propose a new solution to the leaders of the free world. If they are genuinely concern to protect their borders or to at least close their countries to certain group of people, then they must learn to empower those individuals in their own country. Instead of spending a fortune to repatriate illegal immigrants, it would be wiser to invest in the human potential before they become illegal immigrants. Instead of selectively choose whom to allow access to a G-8 country; it would be best to have a fair policy for all citizens of the world.
We talk about equal access in schools and many institutions in the United States, it is about time we start the conversation of equal access to visit any country in the world by any citizen of any country. It is unfair that an American citizen have free access to any country in the world, while a farmer in Haiti can’t even dream of visiting its next door neighbor, the Dominican Republic, let alone coming to America.
If we want to stop illegal immigration, we must open up the borders of the advanced countries to the average citizens of the world. Open up your universities, so the sons and daughters of a peasant in Haiti, Bangladesh, Niger, Somalia, and Zimbabwe among other poor countries can come and learn valuable skills, that way their own progeny won’t have to risk their lives in the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea.
Let’s open up the border of the world, so that free trade can take place by all, not just the super rich. Open up the borders, so that the less advanced cultures can learn from the most advanced ones. We owe it to ourselves, as members of the same species to make life better for all.
The days of national borders are irrelevant in a global economy. The advanced of technology makes it easy for someone in one of the poorest nations on this planet to have a live video conversation with another person residing in an advanced country. Let’s break the barriers that have been promoting poverty, hunger, hatred, and above all prejudice among our species.
Just as Ronald Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down that wall, today I am asking for the leaders of the free world to open the gate of prosperity to the average citizen of the world. Illegal immigration is not the dream of the average Haitian citizen, but as they get older and face a bleak reality, they often see no other alternative. Granting them easy access to a student, worker or tourist visa would go a long way at solving your illegal immigration issues. The fact that they are from a poor country does not mean they do not love their country.
It is time to open the borders, and live on this planet as nature intended for us to live, freely and in harmony.
ilio@zanmi.com