Reconsidering open borders: an analysis of migration and global inequality

As a result of the neoliberal ideological turn the past few decades have seen a vast liberalization of markets for capital and commodities. Paradoxically, the liberalization of international borders for capital has occurred alongside a restriction of mobility for human beings. Scholarship surrounding migration generally focuses on formulating recommendations for improving the immigration system. Few scholars have focused their attention on questioning the foundational premises of this system. This paper engages with the literature on open borders. It examines the ways in which international borders simultaneously produce and maintain global inequality. It will argue that discussions of liberalizing borders can only take place in the context of a discussion about how to remove those factors that prompt migration in the first place. Studies of migration must be embedded within the broader debates surrounding the political economy of globalization and its impacts on international development.