Blog: No Left Case Against Open Borders (Link)

 

Why There Is No Left Wing Argument against Open Borders

 

 

Ok, one more time because this is driving me a little bit crazy: If we’re leftists, then we concede that the problem pretty much revolves around capitalism, right? To use a simplified analogy, the rich guys get ALL the pies, and they give us only a tiny portion to split, yes?

Now, admittedly this tiny portion is split in a legitimately huge number of uneven ways, but the essential problem is that the rich get all the pie and we, as a whole, do not get even enough of the pie to feed ourselves and our families. We’re slaving to make the pie, they eat it.

So now, you’re coming to me and saying “but Nina, if we let in a bunch of poor brown people, we’ll get even LESS of the pie” – and what I’m trying to explain to you is that this is very dumb for two obvious reasons: A) we ALREADY know the problem is that rich people keep the pie.

So really, any energy we spend fighting each other over scraps of pie, which is what your argument boils down to, is energy we do not spend fighting the rich people who literally have more pie than they can f*cking eat.

So Charles Koch wants open borders and? Do you think he wants fair wages? Do you think he wants an even distribution of pie? Of course not, so why are you bringing up Charles Koch when I’m telling you that focusing on the brown people who might move next door is ignoring pies?

But there’s a second, even more insidious reason why this is a problem – and it revolves around the very nature of borders & nationalism. Let’s be clear, you’re specifically arguing for borders based on a labor supply/wages argument, which means you’ve already accepted inequity.

Instead of fighting to make sure we all get a fair share, you’re telling me we should all get a fair share, so long as we’re inside this imaginary line, and that people OUTSIDE of that imaginary line have no claim to this fair share – in fact, you concede that we must police this.

I don’t agree with that principle. I can’t actually. Because at the end of your argument, is men with guns, telling the have nots, they can’t have what the haves do. All you’ve done is changed the definition of who the “haves” are and now you’re basically doing imperialism.

Finally of course, there comes the question of your stunningly cruel, objectively insane and potentially racist timing. We’re watching the global rise of violent right wing revanchist, nativist and fascist movements – many of them have seized the reins of power, including Trump.

At this precise moment in time, highly paid professional nazi propagandists are all over your TV set trying to make the argument that we should brutalize and dehumanize migrants and brown people.

You don’t realize this but they’re doing it primarily because racism & private prisons are extremely lucrative enterprises in this political environment. This effort however has also helped to create a political climate where random, street level reactionaries engage in stunning acts of violence against people they simply THINK might be migrants.

So you’re out here, making what amounts to, in my mind, a largely irrelevant side argument about wages & the history of white dudes who support labor unions; an argument that helps nazis literally kill brown people –  and you wonder why I’m upset with you? Come on now…