Will the real foreigners please stand up?

Either we all stand up or none of us do. Recently I read comments on the BBC page on Open Borders. One Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies expresses this view.

Borders are essential to nationhood. They are the line between “us” and “them”. Without ‘them’ there can be no ‘us’, precluding the possibility of social solidarity.

Scary isn’t it? If we let those foreigners in we’ll be in real trouble.

High falutin’ words but when you cut to the chase its just the same kind of mindless tribalism that has caused human suffering for thousands of years. Get over it. There is no “them” – there’s just “us” on this planet. What precludes social solidarity is drawing imaginary boundaries between members of our community. They look different. They speak different. They’re a different class. They’re black. They’re white. They’re women. They’re Christian. They’re Jews. They’re Muslims. They’re foreigners. Let’s keep them out. Let’s keep them in their place. That way we can know who “we” really are. If this is what “social solidarity” means, we’re better off without it. Social solidarity means looking after each other and caring for our community to the best of our ability – caring for everyone in our community. It might seem like hard work building that understanding. Building and maintaining all those borders is a lot harder and by the way it kills people. Treating people differently because of their nationality is a violation of human rights.

The Center for Immigration Studies has been linked with white supremacist groups in a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.