I never gave much thought on the issue of immigration in Europe or other places besides North America. I suspect that global immigration will become more of a hot topic issue as markets globalize. I don't know enough to be able to say how open a border should be; there are certainly many ideological and logistical roadblocks for a fully open society to develop.
I too am rather naive about immigration in Europe. I am wondering just how tight the borders are at the present. In class, we read a little about the US/Mexico border and how inhumane it is with the desert killing numerous would-be illegal immigrants. I might consider this as a "tight" border.
The article you linked, however, makes it seem like the immigrants have trouble not so much in crossing the border but in being exploited and otherwise treated inhumanely afterward. I suppose that in the ideal world, illegal immigration would be curbed by eliminating the promise/pull to affluent societies and better lives...but there is no easy way to do this either.
The article you linked has certainly caused me to scratch my head.
I just wanted to add that another issue with borders has come up very recently: how they should be treated in light of health concerns. I read that France petitioned for the banning of flights to Mexico from the EU because of the swine-flu outbreak. What does this say about border control issues? If a country can quickly create such laws because of health issues, at what point will they stop creating them? I think that in examining reactions to immediate border control issues we can also shed light on more long term ones.
I'm also curious- where do most immigrants to the EU come from, and how? What percentage are 'illegal'?
I think that this advertisement is very interesting, and I thank you for bringing it to our class. I would like to look at one of the underlying assumptions of the add: that barriers must exist. The add states "how open should our boarders be", and then gives two visual options, a fortified wall and a hedge. The intended metaphor here is obviously that there exists a gradient of our treatment of boarders; the stone wall represents one end of the spectrum and the hedge presents the other. But this framework implies that the boarder will necessarily have a barrier of some kind. This speaks to our pervasive paradigm, which seeks to make barriers a "natural" sort of a thing. Why is the opposite end of the border spectrum open space? Why is it not an open door?
"How open should our borders be?"
Hallo Manuela! Ich heisse Katie und ich reise nach Berlin mit UW dieser Sommer. Vielen Dank für das Foto und die Website, sehr interessant!
ReplyDelete-Katie McCorkell
I never gave much thought on the issue of immigration in Europe or other places besides North America. I suspect that global immigration will become more of a hot topic issue as markets globalize. I don't know enough to be able to say how open a border should be; there are certainly many ideological and logistical roadblocks for a fully open society to develop.
ReplyDeleteI too am rather naive about immigration in Europe. I am wondering just how tight the borders are at the present.
ReplyDeleteIn class, we read a little about the US/Mexico border and how inhumane it is with the desert killing numerous would-be illegal immigrants. I might consider this as a "tight" border.
The article you linked, however, makes it seem like the immigrants have trouble not so much in crossing the border but in being exploited and otherwise treated inhumanely afterward. I suppose that in the ideal world, illegal immigration would be curbed by eliminating the promise/pull to affluent societies and better lives...but there is no easy way to do this either.
The article you linked has certainly caused me to scratch my head.
-Daniel Kashima
I just wanted to add that another issue with borders has come up very recently: how they should be treated in light of health concerns. I read that France petitioned for the banning of flights to Mexico from the EU because of the swine-flu outbreak. What does this say about border control issues? If a country can quickly create such laws because of health issues, at what point will they stop creating them? I think that in examining reactions to immediate border control issues we can also shed light on more long term ones.
ReplyDeleteI'm also curious- where do most immigrants to the EU come from, and how? What percentage are 'illegal'?
I think that this advertisement is very interesting, and I thank you for bringing it to our class. I would like to look at one of the underlying assumptions of the add: that barriers must exist. The add states "how open should our boarders be", and then gives two visual options, a fortified wall and a hedge. The intended metaphor here is obviously that there exists a gradient of our treatment of boarders; the stone wall represents one end of the spectrum and the hedge presents the other. But this framework implies that the boarder will necessarily have a barrier of some kind. This speaks to our pervasive paradigm, which seeks to make barriers a "natural" sort of a thing. Why is the opposite end of the border spectrum open space? Why is it not an open door?
ReplyDelete