No Papers, Please
July 31, 2023 6:24 AM Subscribe
The Reuters investigation interviewed a migrant who said that he encountered a group of men taking photos of the scenery while he was on his journey through the Darien Gap. He was shocked when he found out that these were adventure tourists who were there to shoot films and make content. What could better illustrate the sheer entitlement of the wealthy and the increasing lack of moral shame or outrage at the reduction of one group of humans to a subordinate category while others can afford to reduce anything to an “experience” for “making content”? from Passports and Power
Say Goodbye to Permissionless Travel [Reason]
Exploring passport power: Why some enjoy hassle-free travel [DW]
Global Passport Ranking [Henley]
Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday: No permits, no visas, nothing to give you trouble; the borders that today, thanks to the pathological distrust felt by everyone for everyone else, are a tangled fence of red tape were then nothing but symbolic lines on the map, and you crossed them as unthinkingly as you can cross the meridian in Greenwich. It was not until after the war that National Socialism began destroying the world, and the first visible symptom of that intellectual epidemic of the present century was xenophobia—hatred or at least fear of foreigners. People were defending themselves against foreigners everywhere; they were kept out of everywhere. All the humiliations previously devised solely for criminals were now inflicted on every traveller before and during a journey. You had to be photographed from right and left, in profile and full face, hair cut short enough to show your ears; you had to have fingerprints taken—first just your thumbs, then all ten digits; you had to be able to show certificates—of general health and inoculations—papers issued by the police certifying that you had no criminal record; you had to be able to produce documentary proof of recommendations and invitations, with addresses of relatives; you had to have other documents guaranteeing that you were of good moral and financial repute; you had to fill in and sign forms in triplicate or quadruplicate, and if just one of this great stack of pieces of paper was missing you were done for ... Formerly man had only a body and a soul. Now he needs a passport as well for without it he will not be treated like a human being.”
Say Goodbye to Permissionless Travel [Reason]
Exploring passport power: Why some enjoy hassle-free travel [DW]
Global Passport Ranking [Henley]
Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday: No permits, no visas, nothing to give you trouble; the borders that today, thanks to the pathological distrust felt by everyone for everyone else, are a tangled fence of red tape were then nothing but symbolic lines on the map, and you crossed them as unthinkingly as you can cross the meridian in Greenwich. It was not until after the war that National Socialism began destroying the world, and the first visible symptom of that intellectual epidemic of the present century was xenophobia—hatred or at least fear of foreigners. People were defending themselves against foreigners everywhere; they were kept out of everywhere. All the humiliations previously devised solely for criminals were now inflicted on every traveller before and during a journey. You had to be photographed from right and left, in profile and full face, hair cut short enough to show your ears; you had to have fingerprints taken—first just your thumbs, then all ten digits; you had to be able to show certificates—of general health and inoculations—papers issued by the police certifying that you had no criminal record; you had to be able to produce documentary proof of recommendations and invitations, with addresses of relatives; you had to have other documents guaranteeing that you were of good moral and financial repute; you had to fill in and sign forms in triplicate or quadruplicate, and if just one of this great stack of pieces of paper was missing you were done for ... Formerly man had only a body and a soul. Now he needs a passport as well for without it he will not be treated like a human being.”
Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls
posted by eviemath at 8:16 AM on July 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
Human beings have migrated throughout their history. People and their rulers have at various times and in different ways tried to exclude others from their territories, or to expel them once they are there. Most people now appear to take immigration controls for granted, at least in the rich industrialised countries of the West. But comprehensive controls to stop immigration are a recent phenomenon. A hundred years ago they did not exist; it was the people who advocated them who were condemned as extremist. Immigration controls are a function of nation states which themselves have existed for not much longer,...(Second edition)
posted by eviemath at 8:16 AM on July 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
Against Borders: The Case for Abolition (book)
As with universal basic income, there are also neoliberal versions of open (for some definition, if you squint) borders proposals: The Case For Open Borders - In a new graphic-nonfiction book, a libertarian economist conjures an alternative reality in which immigration is unlimited all over the world. (article).
posted by eviemath at 8:24 AM on July 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
As with universal basic income, there are also neoliberal versions of open (for some definition, if you squint) borders proposals: The Case For Open Borders - In a new graphic-nonfiction book, a libertarian economist conjures an alternative reality in which immigration is unlimited all over the world. (article).
posted by eviemath at 8:24 AM on July 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
Shades of Bedlam.
Interesting subject, passports. The familiar booklet version is a product of a 1920 League of Nations directive. (Someplace I have my grandparent's pre-war passport, an impressive faux vellum number, folded several ways. The 1892 State Department document The American Passport Its History and a Digest of Laws, Rulings and Regulations Governing Its Issuance by the Department of State makes for fascinating reading, if the US is of interest. (More generally, see The Passport: The History of Man's Most Travelled Document.)
Re population movement - the question becomes, at what point does migration become perceived as invasion? Depends on whom you ask, and criteria will vary. Reactions change according to whose oxen are being gored. Europeans crossing to North America unwelcomed by the indigenes, vs various third worlders crossing to Europe unwelcomed by the locals. On a small scale, working class folk moving into leafy green suburbs spark NIMBYism remarks of "there goes the neighbourhood" vs bohemians spear heading the gentrification of established if run-down (and affordable) urban areas. Numbers matter, of course. So do social and cultural compatibility. It's a challenge. Wish I had some answers.
posted by BWA at 9:01 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
Interesting subject, passports. The familiar booklet version is a product of a 1920 League of Nations directive. (Someplace I have my grandparent's pre-war passport, an impressive faux vellum number, folded several ways. The 1892 State Department document The American Passport Its History and a Digest of Laws, Rulings and Regulations Governing Its Issuance by the Department of State makes for fascinating reading, if the US is of interest. (More generally, see The Passport: The History of Man's Most Travelled Document.)
Re population movement - the question becomes, at what point does migration become perceived as invasion? Depends on whom you ask, and criteria will vary. Reactions change according to whose oxen are being gored. Europeans crossing to North America unwelcomed by the indigenes, vs various third worlders crossing to Europe unwelcomed by the locals. On a small scale, working class folk moving into leafy green suburbs spark NIMBYism remarks of "there goes the neighbourhood" vs bohemians spear heading the gentrification of established if run-down (and affordable) urban areas. Numbers matter, of course. So do social and cultural compatibility. It's a challenge. Wish I had some answers.
posted by BWA at 9:01 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm a little wary of a paper that states: "...comprehensive controls to stop immigration are a recent phenomenon. A hundred years ago they did not exist..."
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882.
Immigration Act of 1907.
posted by storybored at 9:04 AM on July 31, 2023 [30 favorites]
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882.
Immigration Act of 1907.
posted by storybored at 9:04 AM on July 31, 2023 [30 favorites]
I highly recommend Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration, the book discussed in eviemath's New Yorker link. It's a collaboration between Bryan Caplan, a libertarian economist, and Zach Weinersmith (of SMBC webcomic fame). They have very different economic and political philosophies, but together they make a really compelling case that there just aren't any good reasons not to have open borders: it's irrational fear and racism all the way down.
Personally I take an almost absolutist view on open borders. I'll grant some narrow exceptions for deportation as punishment for (some) crime, but if it were up to me I'd say open borders for all and a return to the original naturalization act's requirement of a simple 2 years of residency to become a citizen. And we'll save billions that are currently wasted on cruel, racist CBP/ICE policing and bureaucracy.
posted by jedicus at 9:10 AM on July 31, 2023 [12 favorites]
Personally I take an almost absolutist view on open borders. I'll grant some narrow exceptions for deportation as punishment for (some) crime, but if it were up to me I'd say open borders for all and a return to the original naturalization act's requirement of a simple 2 years of residency to become a citizen. And we'll save billions that are currently wasted on cruel, racist CBP/ICE policing and bureaucracy.
posted by jedicus at 9:10 AM on July 31, 2023 [12 favorites]
I think the comparison with small-scale/neighborhood level migration is apt. Within many countries, we have social welfare programs that mitigate against intra-country migration, based on an understanding that those who are better off benefit from living in a society that takes care of everyone to some minimal degree and provides opportunity through education and health care (on top of basic ethical considerations). But on the nation level, we somehow seem to use borders to ignore the fact that richer countries got that way - and also currently maintain their relative national wealth - by exploiting what are currently poorer countries. That is, we also live in a global society, whether we like it or not.
The rise of travel restrictions for people across national borders can’t be understood without also taking into consideration the parallel diminishment of restrictions against international capital movement, including the gutting of global banking regulations over the past 50 years. This creates an artificial set of arbitrage opportunities that have very generously benefitted a relatively small group of already wealthy and powerful individuals and businesses, to the overall detriment of the rest of us.
posted by eviemath at 9:13 AM on July 31, 2023 [13 favorites]
The rise of travel restrictions for people across national borders can’t be understood without also taking into consideration the parallel diminishment of restrictions against international capital movement, including the gutting of global banking regulations over the past 50 years. This creates an artificial set of arbitrage opportunities that have very generously benefitted a relatively small group of already wealthy and powerful individuals and businesses, to the overall detriment of the rest of us.
posted by eviemath at 9:13 AM on July 31, 2023 [13 favorites]
It was not until after the war that National Socialism began destroying the world, and the first visible symptom of that intellectual epidemic of the present century was xenophobia
we've come a long way since Zweig wrote this text in 1934. Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities is a 101 text for history, political, etc majors an was seminal in breaking the ground for understanding the processes of nationalism as a cultural product, arguing that pre-existing linguistic, ethnic, and cultural divisions encoded by the ruling class and capitalist entrepreneurs are what comprises the national community. this kind of organization, it is argued, existed long before Stanford would pioneer the kind of eugenics that would become popular in Nazi Germany. racist, specifically targeted immigration policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act predates Zweig's text by 50 years for eg
Foucault's idea of biopower is complementary to this and covers the bureaucratic control of human bodies by institutions of discipline (eg prisons, courts, etc) and Byung-Chul Han's Psychopolitics expands it from institutions to ideology, with free-in-the-world individuals exerting surveillance power over one another for transgressing 'official' forms of control (eg Karens ie narcs ie bootlickers ie groveling ethically-subhuman worms)
from this, you can say that most nation states are created in a way where xenophobia is the expected outcome. one easy and commonly cited exampled for the normalization of this us-vs-the-other habituation is the organization of competitive team sports in our early schooling though there are myriad others in our media. the direction that passport restrictions are heading in this world is a "natural" thing - neoliberal globalization, as huge an effect as it is with corporations pushing governments to reduce travel restrictions and expanding the power of the business visa or work permit, would always run into this fundamental organizational wall that claws its way back, time after time. the cynical, authoritarian-minded will argue that this is human nature, that we cannot help ourselves and require control, ignoring that it was decided for us by those in power that we would always end up here due to their own lack of foresight
until you see this nation state abolished or completely reformed from the ground up (as in constitutional, first principle laws are completely rewritten), you will never see the end of xenophobia. with the climate crises getting worse and worse, and refugee populations expected to be in the billions rather than the simple millions of today, I can't imagine a future world that wouldn't result in a net increase in human suffering for all with a concentration in, of course, those without power or backing by a nation state for their individual rights
posted by paimapi at 9:14 AM on July 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
we've come a long way since Zweig wrote this text in 1934. Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities is a 101 text for history, political, etc majors an was seminal in breaking the ground for understanding the processes of nationalism as a cultural product, arguing that pre-existing linguistic, ethnic, and cultural divisions encoded by the ruling class and capitalist entrepreneurs are what comprises the national community. this kind of organization, it is argued, existed long before Stanford would pioneer the kind of eugenics that would become popular in Nazi Germany. racist, specifically targeted immigration policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act predates Zweig's text by 50 years for eg
Foucault's idea of biopower is complementary to this and covers the bureaucratic control of human bodies by institutions of discipline (eg prisons, courts, etc) and Byung-Chul Han's Psychopolitics expands it from institutions to ideology, with free-in-the-world individuals exerting surveillance power over one another for transgressing 'official' forms of control (eg Karens ie narcs ie bootlickers ie groveling ethically-subhuman worms)
from this, you can say that most nation states are created in a way where xenophobia is the expected outcome. one easy and commonly cited exampled for the normalization of this us-vs-the-other habituation is the organization of competitive team sports in our early schooling though there are myriad others in our media. the direction that passport restrictions are heading in this world is a "natural" thing - neoliberal globalization, as huge an effect as it is with corporations pushing governments to reduce travel restrictions and expanding the power of the business visa or work permit, would always run into this fundamental organizational wall that claws its way back, time after time. the cynical, authoritarian-minded will argue that this is human nature, that we cannot help ourselves and require control, ignoring that it was decided for us by those in power that we would always end up here due to their own lack of foresight
until you see this nation state abolished or completely reformed from the ground up (as in constitutional, first principle laws are completely rewritten), you will never see the end of xenophobia. with the climate crises getting worse and worse, and refugee populations expected to be in the billions rather than the simple millions of today, I can't imagine a future world that wouldn't result in a net increase in human suffering for all with a concentration in, of course, those without power or backing by a nation state for their individual rights
posted by paimapi at 9:14 AM on July 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
What could better illustrate the sheer entitlement of the wealthy and the increasing lack of moral shame or outrage at the reduction of one group of humans to a subordinate category while others can afford to reduce anything to an “experience” for “making content”?
I think I would like to push back against this, too. there's a hint of 'blame social media' here when in reality, the fact that someone in a position privileged by a powerful nation state in a world dominated by capitalism would, of course, utilize those privileges in a way that is beneficial to them while others, undergoing the same material thing, would be actively suffering, just trying to survive
we are surrounded by examples of this every single day in the form of pay disparities, homelessness, food insecurity, environmental pollution, police brutality, etc. it is always uncanny that whenever we see the two extremes side-by-side - on the one end, a well-fed, healthy individual with a protective network, adored by many, able to just do what they want undergoing the same rituals of survival as someone who's suffered chronic abuse, starvation, systemic degradation, with a future without any guarantee that it will be better, and constantly running the risk of things turning out much worse but given no options but to at least try
this is not an 'influencer' thing, this is a societal thing, and the sooner we stop scapegoating the obvious targets and start looking for the system that produced them, the more effective we'll be at sublimating our frustrations into active participation into things like community organizing that actively fights and resists policies of dehumanization instead of simply storing all of this knowledge away for a future quip, no examination required, opinions pre-formulated, a conversation starter that improves our own social capital and nothing more
posted by paimapi at 9:28 AM on July 31, 2023 [22 favorites]
I think I would like to push back against this, too. there's a hint of 'blame social media' here when in reality, the fact that someone in a position privileged by a powerful nation state in a world dominated by capitalism would, of course, utilize those privileges in a way that is beneficial to them while others, undergoing the same material thing, would be actively suffering, just trying to survive
we are surrounded by examples of this every single day in the form of pay disparities, homelessness, food insecurity, environmental pollution, police brutality, etc. it is always uncanny that whenever we see the two extremes side-by-side - on the one end, a well-fed, healthy individual with a protective network, adored by many, able to just do what they want undergoing the same rituals of survival as someone who's suffered chronic abuse, starvation, systemic degradation, with a future without any guarantee that it will be better, and constantly running the risk of things turning out much worse but given no options but to at least try
this is not an 'influencer' thing, this is a societal thing, and the sooner we stop scapegoating the obvious targets and start looking for the system that produced them, the more effective we'll be at sublimating our frustrations into active participation into things like community organizing that actively fights and resists policies of dehumanization instead of simply storing all of this knowledge away for a future quip, no examination required, opinions pre-formulated, a conversation starter that improves our own social capital and nothing more
posted by paimapi at 9:28 AM on July 31, 2023 [22 favorites]
Say Goodbye to Permissionless Travel [Reason]
The US has required the same from travelers from every country that is given access to the visa waiver program since January 12, 2009 via the ESTA program. Now it's apparently a problem when turnabout is fair play? Although I guess it wouldn't be the United States if someone wasn't shitting their pants about American exceptionalism not being respected by the rest of the world.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:54 AM on July 31, 2023 [11 favorites]
The US has required the same from travelers from every country that is given access to the visa waiver program since January 12, 2009 via the ESTA program. Now it's apparently a problem when turnabout is fair play? Although I guess it wouldn't be the United States if someone wasn't shitting their pants about American exceptionalism not being respected by the rest of the world.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 9:54 AM on July 31, 2023 [11 favorites]
3rd paragraph from that Reason article;
Before you start shaking your fist at freedom-hating Eurocrats, know that ETIAS is the belated continental answer to a system the U.S. has imposed on residents of friendly countries since 2009, called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA. Like ETIAS, ESTA is a response to 21st-century terrorist attacks and combines modest fees ($21) with less-than-instantaneous turnaround times (a promised 72 hours). Both either tweak or torpedo (depending on your point of view) the notion of reciprocal "visa waiver" travel between high-trust countries.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:11 AM on July 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
Before you start shaking your fist at freedom-hating Eurocrats, know that ETIAS is the belated continental answer to a system the U.S. has imposed on residents of friendly countries since 2009, called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA. Like ETIAS, ESTA is a response to 21st-century terrorist attacks and combines modest fees ($21) with less-than-instantaneous turnaround times (a promised 72 hours). Both either tweak or torpedo (depending on your point of view) the notion of reciprocal "visa waiver" travel between high-trust countries.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:11 AM on July 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
No permits, no visas, nothing to give you trouble; the borders that today, thanks to the pathological distrust felt by everyone for everyone else, are a tangled fence of red tape were then nothing but symbolic lines on the map, and you crossed them as unthinkingly as you can cross the meridian in Greenwich.
Countries closed themselves off to the world all the time. The UK fought a fucking war, sailing up the Yangtze River, ready to level Nanking to the ground, in order to open up treaty ports in China. The Perry Expedition opening up Japan to the US? Countries going to war or that held animosity would close their borders to each other. They would embargo goods from their rivals. There were all sorts of restrictions the state would arbitrarily impose and if you weren't a bigshot who had a seat at the Royal Court you just had to deal with it.
Hell, if there was an epidemic you wouldn't allow traffic in and out of the local town. No freedom, no due process, just go the fuck away. Oh you need provisions and will starve? Stay out there and starve. And even then, if you could travel Europe capriciously, it would only be because you were one of the 25% of the population who weren't bound to the land.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:12 AM on July 31, 2023 [10 favorites]
Countries closed themselves off to the world all the time. The UK fought a fucking war, sailing up the Yangtze River, ready to level Nanking to the ground, in order to open up treaty ports in China. The Perry Expedition opening up Japan to the US? Countries going to war or that held animosity would close their borders to each other. They would embargo goods from their rivals. There were all sorts of restrictions the state would arbitrarily impose and if you weren't a bigshot who had a seat at the Royal Court you just had to deal with it.
Hell, if there was an epidemic you wouldn't allow traffic in and out of the local town. No freedom, no due process, just go the fuck away. Oh you need provisions and will starve? Stay out there and starve. And even then, if you could travel Europe capriciously, it would only be because you were one of the 25% of the population who weren't bound to the land.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:12 AM on July 31, 2023 [10 favorites]
Granted, there is a lot of idealism about the past. If you read Les Miserables, you know that a big part of Valjean's problems stemmed from the fact that he had the wrong 'passport' to truly be able to wander around his own country. So, yes, there have always been limits on freedom.
That said, immigration restrictions today are far tougher than they need to be. They are rarely introduced out of economic necessity (if a case can be made at all) but out of fear, racism and xenophobia. The Chinese Exclusion Act didn't even pretend to be otherwise. It was the original "invasion", an image so strong that it keeps going today.
Nobody should be tied to the arbitrary plot of land that they were born into. In my ideal world, all borders would be open. I have yet to see a good case for why it should be otherwise.
posted by vacapinta at 10:37 AM on July 31, 2023 [8 favorites]
That said, immigration restrictions today are far tougher than they need to be. They are rarely introduced out of economic necessity (if a case can be made at all) but out of fear, racism and xenophobia. The Chinese Exclusion Act didn't even pretend to be otherwise. It was the original "invasion", an image so strong that it keeps going today.
Nobody should be tied to the arbitrary plot of land that they were born into. In my ideal world, all borders would be open. I have yet to see a good case for why it should be otherwise.
posted by vacapinta at 10:37 AM on July 31, 2023 [8 favorites]
I should have put this as a Previously, even though it's a self-link, about the Open Borders book from 2019
posted by chavenet at 10:48 AM on July 31, 2023
posted by chavenet at 10:48 AM on July 31, 2023
a-and here's a link to Zweig's The World of Yesterday
the quotes are from page 410, the whole book is wonderful & horrible.
posted by chavenet at 11:01 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
the quotes are from page 410, the whole book is wonderful & horrible.
posted by chavenet at 11:01 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
There's a reason that the Constitution doesn't grant any authority to regulate where free people choose to travel and reside, and it is because the Framers enjoyed open borders.
posted by mikelieman at 11:03 AM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mikelieman at 11:03 AM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Countries going to war or that held animosity would close their borders to each other. They would embargo goods from their rivals.
I think what you're missing here is the development of the "technology" (in the broader sense) to create border controls effective enough to be noticed as constraint over the population as a whole. Charles V may not have wanted random Frenchmen crossing the Netherlandish border at various times, but there were only a moderate number of customs stations on key roads to check and no real way to prove on the spot what your "citizenship" was, anyway.
Also, for people who maybe don't know who Zweig was, he was writing about his experience growing up in the Austrian Empire of the late 19th/early 20th century and contrasting that experience with the 1930s and later. George Orwell wrote a similar passage (with a little better awareness of the world situation). Of course they are talking about people with the capacity to travel--funds or the willingness to endure serious, if hopefully transitory, deprivation. But it's odd to me to see arguments that there wasn't a meaningful change for the worse in the twentieth century, even if (as paimapi notes above) we now have a much broader view of how Europe state formation operated over a much longer scale.
posted by praemunire at 11:47 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
I think what you're missing here is the development of the "technology" (in the broader sense) to create border controls effective enough to be noticed as constraint over the population as a whole. Charles V may not have wanted random Frenchmen crossing the Netherlandish border at various times, but there were only a moderate number of customs stations on key roads to check and no real way to prove on the spot what your "citizenship" was, anyway.
Also, for people who maybe don't know who Zweig was, he was writing about his experience growing up in the Austrian Empire of the late 19th/early 20th century and contrasting that experience with the 1930s and later. George Orwell wrote a similar passage (with a little better awareness of the world situation). Of course they are talking about people with the capacity to travel--funds or the willingness to endure serious, if hopefully transitory, deprivation. But it's odd to me to see arguments that there wasn't a meaningful change for the worse in the twentieth century, even if (as paimapi notes above) we now have a much broader view of how Europe state formation operated over a much longer scale.
posted by praemunire at 11:47 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
There's a reason that the Constitution doesn't grant any authority to regulate where free people choose to travel and reside, and it is because the Framers enjoyed open borders.
True enough, but in their immense wisdom they seemed plenty comfortable exerting authority over the travel and residence freedoms for the people they held as slaves...
posted by hangashore at 11:59 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
True enough, but in their immense wisdom they seemed plenty comfortable exerting authority over the travel and residence freedoms for the people they held as slaves...
posted by hangashore at 11:59 AM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
Stefan Zweig's writings were also the inspiration for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. “It’s basically plagiarism”
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:02 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:02 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
He was shocked when he found out that these were adventure tourists who were there to shoot films and make content.
No doubt this “content” will magically end up in umpteen republican election ads with a this-is-deadly-serious-stuff voiceover intoning “Thousands of illegals invading our nation and [insert Democrat’s name here] does nothing to protect americans.” Or shit to that effect.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:25 PM on July 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
No doubt this “content” will magically end up in umpteen republican election ads with a this-is-deadly-serious-stuff voiceover intoning “Thousands of illegals invading our nation and [insert Democrat’s name here] does nothing to protect americans.” Or shit to that effect.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:25 PM on July 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think what you're missing here is the development of the "technology" (in the broader sense) to create border controls effective enough to be noticed as constraint over the population as a whole.
Hadrian's Wall and Offa's Dyke are two physical examples of historic effective border controls in Britain alone.
I think we had constraints on Scots moving to England before the Act of Union as well.
posted by MattWPBS at 4:17 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Hadrian's Wall and Offa's Dyke are two physical examples of historic effective border controls in Britain alone.
I think we had constraints on Scots moving to England before the Act of Union as well.
posted by MattWPBS at 4:17 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
"But comprehensive controls to stop immigration are a recent phenomenon. A hundred years ago they did not exist"
Tang China begs to differ.
For foreigners to trade in China, a passport (过所 guòsuǒ) was required, giving the name of the traveler, the size of his party, and details of his itinerary. Here's a discussion of a single such passport, from 732 CE.
The idea that xenophobia is a recent invention would, I expect, be a big surprise to Jews. Or, say, to the Spanish Muslims expelled after the reconquista.
posted by zompist at 4:26 PM on July 31, 2023 [11 favorites]
Tang China begs to differ.
For foreigners to trade in China, a passport (过所 guòsuǒ) was required, giving the name of the traveler, the size of his party, and details of his itinerary. Here's a discussion of a single such passport, from 732 CE.
The idea that xenophobia is a recent invention would, I expect, be a big surprise to Jews. Or, say, to the Spanish Muslims expelled after the reconquista.
posted by zompist at 4:26 PM on July 31, 2023 [11 favorites]
There is a risk of backward projecting modern attitudes on those sorts of documents, though. Before the modern period, the focus was on controlling trade, for tax reasons - not as much on controlling people.
posted by Zalzidrax at 5:16 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Zalzidrax at 5:16 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Hadrian's Wall and Offa's Dyke are two physical examples of historic effective border controls in Britain alone.
First of all, Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification. In some senses it could indeed be said to function as a border, but what was the country on the other side? There wasn't one. It was designed first and foremost to obstruct the passage of hostile forces and their logistical support. So its function is not really the same as *sigh* the sections of wall on the southern U.S. border.
Secondly, I am begging people entering this discussion to try to think about what was like when you didn't have identity documents, a professional service armed with records at common entry points, any particular conception that a random individual couldn't cross a border except maybe at times of crisis, a clear sense of exactly where the border really was, or any modern border-monitoring literal technology. For the vast majority of European people through the sixteenth century, your own (central) government didn't necessarily know who you were, much less where! When Britons showed up for what I think was relatively limited cross-wall trade, the Romans manning the wall usually would have had no way of definitively establishing their individual identities to decide whether to admit them even temporarily unless they happened to know them personally. Why would they even need or want to? It's not like there were laws against Britons being south of the Wall without some special form of permission.
The big historical concerns for European governments were stopping invasions and collecting taxes/interdicting the flow of contraband, with a small side order of catching any obvious criminals or enemies of the state who wandered by. This is so different from the modern project of borders, with its civilian focus on control of the flow of labor and of unwanted populations, it took several centuries of evolution to get to where we are now.
posted by praemunire at 5:43 PM on July 31, 2023 [11 favorites]
First of all, Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification. In some senses it could indeed be said to function as a border, but what was the country on the other side? There wasn't one. It was designed first and foremost to obstruct the passage of hostile forces and their logistical support. So its function is not really the same as *sigh* the sections of wall on the southern U.S. border.
Secondly, I am begging people entering this discussion to try to think about what was like when you didn't have identity documents, a professional service armed with records at common entry points, any particular conception that a random individual couldn't cross a border except maybe at times of crisis, a clear sense of exactly where the border really was, or any modern border-monitoring literal technology. For the vast majority of European people through the sixteenth century, your own (central) government didn't necessarily know who you were, much less where! When Britons showed up for what I think was relatively limited cross-wall trade, the Romans manning the wall usually would have had no way of definitively establishing their individual identities to decide whether to admit them even temporarily unless they happened to know them personally. Why would they even need or want to? It's not like there were laws against Britons being south of the Wall without some special form of permission.
The big historical concerns for European governments were stopping invasions and collecting taxes/interdicting the flow of contraband, with a small side order of catching any obvious criminals or enemies of the state who wandered by. This is so different from the modern project of borders, with its civilian focus on control of the flow of labor and of unwanted populations, it took several centuries of evolution to get to where we are now.
posted by praemunire at 5:43 PM on July 31, 2023 [11 favorites]
I think the big deal is a shift from a great deal of the world allowing people in unless there was a reason (possibly a bad reason) to keep them out to a great deal of the world keeping people out unless they had a reason to let them in.
Hyperbolic claims that people always had permission to cross borders until fairly recently are annoying, but they aren't the point.
I believe permission to cross borders became a great deal harder to get after 9/11.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:52 PM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
Hyperbolic claims that people always had permission to cross borders until fairly recently are annoying, but they aren't the point.
I believe permission to cross borders became a great deal harder to get after 9/11.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:52 PM on July 31, 2023 [4 favorites]
I find myself wondering if Ötzi‘s papers disintegrated with time or if he never had any.
posted by oldnumberseven at 8:13 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by oldnumberseven at 8:13 PM on July 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
3rd paragraph from that Reason article;
While the Reason article mentions that ESTA already exists, Your Childhood Pet Rock's comment about it being a problem only now I agree with nonetheless. Search for ESTA on Reason's site and you will not find any articles about the End of Permissionless Travel when the US introduced that system.
They're years late with the headline. Permissionless travel, in this context, already died with ESTA, not the EU equivalent.
posted by UN at 11:39 PM on July 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
While the Reason article mentions that ESTA already exists, Your Childhood Pet Rock's comment about it being a problem only now I agree with nonetheless. Search for ESTA on Reason's site and you will not find any articles about the End of Permissionless Travel when the US introduced that system.
They're years late with the headline. Permissionless travel, in this context, already died with ESTA, not the EU equivalent.
posted by UN at 11:39 PM on July 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
For another look at the introduction of modern passport / identification systems see B. Traven's The Death Ship from 1926.
Why passports? Why immigration restriction? Why not let human beings go where they wish to go, North Pole or South Pole, Russia or Turkey, the States or Bolivia? Human beings must be kept under control. They cannot fly like insects about the world into which they were born without being asked. Human beings must be brought under control, under passports, under finger-print registrations. For what reason? Only to show the omnipotence of the state, and of the holy servant of the state, the bureaucrat. Bureaucracy has come to stay. It has become the great and almighty ruler of the world. It has come to stay to whip human beings into discipline and make them numbers within the state. With foot-printings of babies it has begun; the next stage will be the branding of registration numbers upon the back, properly filed, so that no mistake can be made as to the true nationality of the insect. A wall has made China what she is today. The walls all nations have built up since the war for democracy will have the same effect. Expanding markets and making large profits are a religion. It is the oldest religion perhaps, for it has the best-trained priests, and it has the most beautiful churches; yes, sir.
posted by chavenet at 1:39 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Why passports? Why immigration restriction? Why not let human beings go where they wish to go, North Pole or South Pole, Russia or Turkey, the States or Bolivia? Human beings must be kept under control. They cannot fly like insects about the world into which they were born without being asked. Human beings must be brought under control, under passports, under finger-print registrations. For what reason? Only to show the omnipotence of the state, and of the holy servant of the state, the bureaucrat. Bureaucracy has come to stay. It has become the great and almighty ruler of the world. It has come to stay to whip human beings into discipline and make them numbers within the state. With foot-printings of babies it has begun; the next stage will be the branding of registration numbers upon the back, properly filed, so that no mistake can be made as to the true nationality of the insect. A wall has made China what she is today. The walls all nations have built up since the war for democracy will have the same effect. Expanding markets and making large profits are a religion. It is the oldest religion perhaps, for it has the best-trained priests, and it has the most beautiful churches; yes, sir.
posted by chavenet at 1:39 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
When I run that search on Reason's site, I see an article critical of ESTA from the time it went into effect: BBC Journalist Prevented From Traveling to US Because of New Visa Waiver Rules.
posted by daveliepmann at 1:39 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by daveliepmann at 1:39 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yes, I saw that (it's in the link I posted). One mention of a BBC journalist written after ESTA was introduced is a very different type of article.
From my perspective (EU citizen) headlines in US media like "End of free travel for US citizens coming due to coming US regulations" would have been useful years ago when the US government started that program — not buried at the end of an article about one journalist's problem. But there wasn't much of that — I distinctly remember because it was, for obvious reasons, much more of an issue in the EU, not so much in US media outside of superficial "US to introduce new visa waiver rules" articles.
posted by UN at 2:57 AM on August 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
From my perspective (EU citizen) headlines in US media like "End of free travel for US citizens coming due to coming US regulations" would have been useful years ago when the US government started that program — not buried at the end of an article about one journalist's problem. But there wasn't much of that — I distinctly remember because it was, for obvious reasons, much more of an issue in the EU, not so much in US media outside of superficial "US to introduce new visa waiver rules" articles.
posted by UN at 2:57 AM on August 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
It's not just one mention, though. Reason raised the alarm about the bill while it was working through Congress in 2015: one, two; also in 2009 they reported on (related?) changes to the visa waiver program with biting disdain, twice.
If you search for "visa waiver" you'll see they've been on this beat pretty consistently, raising alarms about previous nonsensical border crackdowns as far back as 2003, in a way which seems more principled than US-citizen-centric. This drive-by mention of the visa waiver program is only distantly related but I included it because I like how Reason reported on that horrid 2010-era AZ immigration law.
One could reasonably interpret that their stated beliefs on the issue are genuine. I wish their reporting was more effective, but as they note in the "Citizenship-Stripping" link, public opinion on civil liberties circa 2010 was, shall we say, not strongly enthusiastic.
posted by daveliepmann at 10:27 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
If you search for "visa waiver" you'll see they've been on this beat pretty consistently, raising alarms about previous nonsensical border crackdowns as far back as 2003, in a way which seems more principled than US-citizen-centric. This drive-by mention of the visa waiver program is only distantly related but I included it because I like how Reason reported on that horrid 2010-era AZ immigration law.
One could reasonably interpret that their stated beliefs on the issue are genuine. I wish their reporting was more effective, but as they note in the "Citizenship-Stripping" link, public opinion on civil liberties circa 2010 was, shall we say, not strongly enthusiastic.
posted by daveliepmann at 10:27 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
One more story from the past, re openness to immigration.
Sometime over a thousand years ago, Zoroastrians wished to flee Iran for India. According to their legends, they applied to a ruler named Jadi Rana. He showed them a full pitcher of milk, indicating that the land was full. The Zoroastrian leader added a pinch of sugar, implying that his people would be a tiny but useful addition. The king accepted, though with conditions: the people must speak Gujarati, the men could not bear weapons, and the women must adopt Indian dress.
Now, whether this is strictly historical is debatable— it was written down centuries afterward. But the attitudes revealed are strikingly similar to that of many nations today.
Of course, there are other stories that show that migration is ancient, but also that it was not always viewed positively. E.g. a people called Amorites kept moving into Mesopotamia. At least some kings built walls to keep them out. (One Amorite, Hammurabi, became a great king himself.)
posted by zompist at 4:17 PM on August 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sometime over a thousand years ago, Zoroastrians wished to flee Iran for India. According to their legends, they applied to a ruler named Jadi Rana. He showed them a full pitcher of milk, indicating that the land was full. The Zoroastrian leader added a pinch of sugar, implying that his people would be a tiny but useful addition. The king accepted, though with conditions: the people must speak Gujarati, the men could not bear weapons, and the women must adopt Indian dress.
Now, whether this is strictly historical is debatable— it was written down centuries afterward. But the attitudes revealed are strikingly similar to that of many nations today.
Of course, there are other stories that show that migration is ancient, but also that it was not always viewed positively. E.g. a people called Amorites kept moving into Mesopotamia. At least some kings built walls to keep them out. (One Amorite, Hammurabi, became a great king himself.)
posted by zompist at 4:17 PM on August 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Even The Epic of Gilgamesh portrays outsiders as a potential danger; before meeting Gilgamesh, Enkidu is employed as a watchman protecting borders from animals and specific other groups of people. Hell, there’s some groups of chimpanzees in the Subsahara that have developed what seem to be rules around how and when other groups are allowed to enter or pass through their territories.
Controlling peoples’ movement is, as far as any evidence suggests, as old as people, if not older. It’s always been less of an issue for the privileged, and it’s certainly done for a variety of different reasons now, but there’s never been some fundamental “before passports we were truly free” nonsense.
posted by Molten Berle at 12:25 AM on August 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Controlling peoples’ movement is, as far as any evidence suggests, as old as people, if not older. It’s always been less of an issue for the privileged, and it’s certainly done for a variety of different reasons now, but there’s never been some fundamental “before passports we were truly free” nonsense.
posted by Molten Berle at 12:25 AM on August 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
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