OK obviously reading Yankee's responce i didn't make myself clear. I'm not interested in talking about the political ramifications or whatever. I posted it here in this board (and not the Discussion or Economics board) because I want to find a moral perspective using ethical theory on borders. In short, i want to find a way that I can sleep easy at night believing in closed borders on one hand and condemning seemingly governmental intrusions on liberty like apartheid and segregation on the other.
Well since none of us are in charge of anything, I don't think "sleeping easy" should be a problem for any of us, regardless of our political positions.
But I'd basically argue it on utilitarian grounds. If you allow for completely open borders, you make it much more difficult for rich nations to provide services at their current capacity and endanger their ability to produce economic growth that fuels aid to those countries which are struggling. Plus, allowing mass migration often means the least-skilled members of countries are the ones that stay, making their economies weaker and depriving them of the best talent in their labor force.. It intentionally works against the interests of the people within that country and frankly, that's antithetical to democracy (assuming you want that).
Personally, I think TJ's argument is pretty good as well.
