Open Borders FAQ

  1. What exactly is open borders about?

    As our site welcome message says: “The term “open borders” is used to describe a world where there is a strong presumption in favor of allowing people to migrate and where this presumption can be overridden or curtailed only under exceptional circumstances.” See also the blog post, What do open borders advocates really want?

    Open borders is consistent with no borders, but the two are not synonymous. It is possible to maintain open borders without any border controls, and preserve distinct national sovereignty (see the European Schengen area for one such example). It is also possible to maintain open borders with border controls: some European countries are not part of the Schengen area for instance, but permit other European nationals to enter and work without restriction, although they must still pass through border control. There are a variety of policies that could achieve open borders; tearing down border controls is one of them, but there are many other ways to achieve this as well.

  2. Wouldn’t open borders be disastrous?

    Clearly we believe otherwise.