Come on in, we are open
Image downloaded from pexel and pexel and redisegned using paint
I remembered the first day we went to the farm with my dad. He wasn't a farmer per-say but that year, he got a piece of land from his friend and planted beans. When it was time for harvest, he took us (me and my siblings) there to harvest. Before we started working, he showed us the boundary. You must not exceed this place, he said. He showed us all the boundaries at the four cardinal point of the farm and instructed us not to encroach because an inch outside what he showed us is another persons world
In our homes, there's a limit to where strangers have access to. Some people barricade their house or fence their land out to show a demarcation between them and their neighbours. There are many countries in the world and what separates us is the establishment of borders. Every country have its border just as we have beacons on our land showing a boundary that disallow people from encroaching. In this article, I will be talking about country borders and it's effect when it's widely open to in and out free movement of people
A border is boundary or a line separating one country from the other. Border can only be foisted or imposed between countries that stays side by side to each other. For example, The north America borders Mexico and the South America borders Canada. This is possible because they are beside one another. Boundaries are created between these countries to show where their territory ends. It's not possible for countries that are not beside each other to share a boundary except in the case where some natural boundaries separates countries, eg Ocean, forests and so on. Countries can share boundaries to the East, West, North or South as the case may be. Below are some lists of countries sharing boundaries
| Country | Neighbours sharing border |
|---|---|
| Nigeria | Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Benin Republic |
| South Africa | Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique |
| India | Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal |
| Mexico | United States, Guatemala, Belize |
| United States | Canada, Mexico |
| Venezuela | Brazil, Guyana, Colombia |
| United Arab Emirate | Saudi Arabia, Oman |
| Ukraine | Russia, Poland, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia, Moldova, Hungary |
| Turkey | Greece, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Georgia, Bulgaria, Armenia, Azerbaijan |
| Sweden | Finland, Norway |
| Spain | Morocco, Portugal, France, Andorra, Gibraltar |
| Libya | Niger, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Chad |
| Italy | Austria, France, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland |
| Ethiopia | Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan |
| Ghana | Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo |
Using Nigeria as a case study. If you ask Nigerians if they will love to travel out of the country, 7 out of 10 will tell you they are eager to leave if there's an easy way. There's a slang used by youths that goes "japa", which means "escape". Any slight opportunity to "japa" will be totally embraced. When I looked into why many people want to "japa", I realized that there are many things to discuss inside a currency note
The country has been battling with numerous problems since I come of age, and I know that that is how it has been from long ago before I was born and the funniest part is that we are the one bearing the brunt. It's glaring that many Nigerians are facing troubles in many areas like insecurity, unemployment, poor educational system, political instability, economic crisis, lack of opportunity and infrastructure to help creativity and so on. All these points mentioned are also some of the reasons some people in other countries want to leave their country to another part of the world for a greener pasture. It's all about finding opportunity for growth and decent livelihood
If country borders are open for free movement, most African countries would be deserted (I'm pretty sure of that). Many citizens will travel out of their country to better countries for a better life since many peoples mindset is that they can have a job and live a good life in developed countries. There will be great inflow and outflow from one country to another and that period will be the world travel era of a life time. It's sure that the open border will have some merits and demerits. Let's quickly look at some of them
It makes traveling from one country to another easy without going through the stress of paper work and verification
It will create efficiency in supply chain. Moving products from one country to another becomes easier than when borders are closed and companies will be able to ship their good at a cheaper rate, which will help reduce the price of commodities
Visiting people in other countries will become easier and cheaper
Hopefully, it can help people gain a better life. When a country isn't favourable, people can move to another country as many times as they can till they get to where the economy favours them
It can promote better investment opportunities for international investors because of the possibility of moving in and out of the country without huge bureaucratic hurdles and the local communities would benefit from the investment
There's going to be a huge cultural diversity with open borders. Since every country will be filled with people from different countries in huge numbers, they can learn from one another's culture and lifestyle
The first disadvantage of open border I can think of is excessive migration. There are some countries that would receive migrants that they would not be able to control. Most developed countries will become over populated and once the number of migrants become too high, there would be a problem
Another effect is the over population of local people from the same part of a country. This can cause a serious problem over time. If the population of aliens supersedes the population of the citizens, there would be serious competition among them which can lead to crisis. An example of such was the genocide that happened in South Africa. The citizens complained that migrants are doing better than them in their country and that they've taking over in many areas. The only thing they could do was to wage war against all migrants to get rid of them and take over the control of activities where needed
Some countries will lack qualified professionals. Almost every qualified professionals in a poor country will go find a job in another world where he/she can earn better. While this is good for individual growth, it would affect the development of such country
Smuggling unwanted products will also become easier with open border. The customs at the border are always arresting smugglers with contraband goods everyday with the border close. Imagine what would happen if the border is open. Expired and harmful consumable products will dominate the market because of the easy access to various countries. Also, there will be easy shipping of illegal substances like cocaine, Marijuana, etc
Countries having less crime rate will have a drastic increase with many migrants entering their country. There will also be exploitation, stealing, robbery, and more. Also, there will be under population in under developed countries of the world
The opening of border will really change the world from what it is today to something different because of the free movement of people in and out. Open borders! Will it be a awesome or appalling? Maybe the world should agree on that so we can find out. Lol
This is ckole the laughing gas
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