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The Problem of the Borderline

Connecting the dots in today's New York Times, I count at least four stories about national borders and the people who move across them. 

A federal judge has dismissed a suit against a new law requiring federal contractors to use a system called E-Verify to confirm immigration status of its workers.  The law goes into effect on Sept. 8.

A sheriff in a Texas border-county has been sent to prison for assisting Mexican drug smugglers in exchange for bribes. 

Advocates for immigrants rights have petitioned the administration to abandon a program of cooperation with state police on immigration enforcement. 

Afghan boys, refugees from their homes, are spreading across European cities. 

Palestinians continue a five-year protest against a barrier that has taken half of its land and given it to an Israeli settlement. 

It would tempting to say that the problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of the borderline, but with environmental destruction already in play, I think that trumps migration issues. But I do think the problem of the borderline will dominate the 20-teens, as politicians continue to ignore the environment. 

The problem of the borderline is not a new problem.  Humans have always been migratory.  No one group has ever laid claim to one territory for long.  No one group has ever stayed settled in place for long.  The emphasis on national borders and on citizenship is more recent, only because the idea of the nation is still relatively young.  (Citizenship is a much older concept, that has long held implications for rights and status, but historically was a not a barrier to migration).  The difference now is that migration is easier and pushes towards migration are greater than ever before, even as the emphasis on closed borders is also greater than ever.

Closing the borders--be they in Texas, Palestine, or Paris--is only putting a finger in the dam.  It's time to transform what borders, nationality and citizenship mean to us in anticipation of a world that is uprooting again and becoming yet more mobile.  Stopping immigration is not going to work.  It's time to plan for it. 


A funny take on the issue...

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