In the not-too-distant past, nobody knew what passports were. In the US, they defined citizenship only 200 years ago – and regardless of who was already there, it was “free white persons” only, please.
When we discuss immigration policy, we often talk about the migrants. The ones we let in. Once they’re in, what rights do they deserve?
Less discussed are the ones we keep out.
consider the migrant worker
a video passed by my feed yesterday. a singaporean reflecting on how the migrant workers “are building our nation, but are actually building their dreams.” this reflection came with a candid video of a construction worker on his break, sitting on a mat in the void deck video calling his child thousands of KM away.
Why is she thousands of KM away?
Many families choose to be physically apart for whatever reasons. But to choose means having a choice in the first place. In this case, you could say he chose to work in Singapore…but he never had the choice to bring his family over. Not on a S Pass.
consider the foreign domestic workers
I heard a similar story from a colleague who employs a foreign domestic worker from the Philippines.
8.3% of the 2024 GDP of the Philippines was remittances back home from overseas Filipinos working in the United States, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Entire families have their living expenses covered by a single family member, often a female domestic worker, far away in a foreign land.
All this sounds great. A victory for the free labour market!
But what I learnt from my colleague was that many of these same families are ripped apart. Children grow up without mothers, husbands without their wives. And when they return home hoping for a family, there is a very real possibility that it is no longer there for them.
why aren’t they able to be together? the answer, again, is who we keep out.
consider the refugee
as I write this, India & Pakistan (two nuclear nations, lest we forget) are in the process of dropping bombs on each other.
Multiple people around the world wake up not knowing if a bomb will drop on their heads today. Others live the risk of the police disappearing them forever.
the world is not a place of angels.
more importantly, tomorrow, this could be us.
We rarely, seriously entertain this thought. Not on an individual level and never on a national level. we could – through no fault of our own – be refugees tomorrow.
who would accept us?
We could face a currency crash that would erase all advantages we currently have tomorrow. we might have to travel to make a living.
who would accept us?
the wheel of life turns and turns. sometimes you’re up. sometimes you’re down.
but the ugliest face of society is not even accepting that we are on the same wheel.
who do we keep out and let in?
who do we keep out and let in?
who do we consider one of us, and who is an alien?
today, governments decide. if I could time travel, I would love to live in a world with no passports, no immigration policies, no visas. It’s not radical, it’s how it was.
people decided where to go, who stayed, who left. people decided how to welcome friends and deal with enemies.
policies are tools, but we treat them as scripture.