Should there be any border in this globalised world?

1. Should there be any border in this globalised world? Presented by Pyu Saw Htee

2. Michael A Clemens • A world without borders makes economic sense. Allowing workers to change location significantly enriches the world economy. A modest relaxation of barriers to human mobility between countries would bring more global economic prosperity than the total elimination of all remaining policy barriers to goods trade - every tariff, every quota - plus the elimination of every last restriction on the free movement of capital. Those giant walls are a human creation, but cause more than just human harm: they hobble the global economy, costing the world roughly half its potential economic product. (Michael A Clemens is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he leads the migration and development initiative http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/sep/05/migration-increase-global-economy

3. Brunson McKinley • The movement of people needs to be better managed. The movement of people across borders is essential in today's globalised world. International business depends on an international labour force, and the ability of people to move around the world with ease. However, when managed effectively migration holds great potential for migrants and for host communities. The ultimate goal is not to obstruct or prevent mobility but to better manage it for the benefit of all. (Brunson McKinley is director general of the International Organization for Migration)

4. Prof: BinodKhadria • The question of whether we should have open borders is more a question about the visas barrier countries use for monitoring the immigration of non-citizens than controlling the emigration of citizens. The movement of goods and people are linked. (Professor BinodKhadria is the author of The Migration of Knowledge Workers.)

5. Sir Andrew Green • Given the huge disparities of wealth, open borders would lead to massive flows of people from the third world to the industrialised world until conditions there approximated to their home countries. This would be a recipe for chaos and would be entirely unacceptable to the inhabitants of the industrialised world. (Sir Andrew Green is chairman of Migration Watch UK.)

6. Mark Krikorian • Borders are essential to nationhood. They are the line between "us" and "them". Without 'them' there can be no 'us', precluding the possibility of social solidarity. The analogy to common ownership of property is compelling: if everyone owns everything, the experience of socialist societies shows us that no one is responsible for anything. Likewise, if all men have an equal claim to my affections, without regard to borders, then no man is my brother. Free movement of people is different from the free movement of goods because people are not goods. (Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies, Washington DC.)

7. This is DHS. • Securing and Managing Our Borders. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has worked to better mitigate and defend against dynamic threats, minimize risks, and maximize the ability to respond and recover from attacks and disasters of all kinds. Protecting the nation's borders—land, air, and sea—from the illegal entry of people, weapons, drugs, and contraband is vital to our homeland security, as well as economic prosperity. Over the past several years, DHS has deployed unprecedented levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border. At the same time, DHS has made critical security improvements along the Northern border, investing in additional Border Patrol agents, technology, and infrastructure while also strengthening efforts to increase the security of the nation's maritime borders. (http://www.dhs.gov/securing-and-managing-our-borders)

8. This is CBP • Securing our borders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is responsible for guarding nearly 7,000 miles of land border the United States shares with Canada and Mexico and 2,000 miles of coastal waters surrounding the Florida peninsula and off the coast of Southern California. The agency also protects 95,000 miles of maritime border in partnership with the United States Coast Guard. To secure this vast terrain, CBP’s U.S. Border Patrol agents, Air and Marine agents, and CBP officers and agriculture specialists, together with the nation’s largest law enforcement canine program, stand guard along America’s front line. (http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/about/mission/cbp.xml)

9. Militarizing Border • To accomplish that between US and Mexico border, $46 billion in total will be used into border security, including: • $30 billion to double the number of Border Patrol agents along the Southern border, from about 18,000 today to 38,405. That's about 19 agents per mile. • $8 billion to complete and reinforce a 700-mile pedestrian border fence. • $4.5 billion in high-tech surveillance technology, including 24/7 use of unmanned aerial drones; six "Vader" (Vehicle Dismount and Exploitation Radar) radar systems developed for the military in Afghanistan; 40 new helicopters; 30 marine vessels; 4,595 unattended ground sensors with seismic, imaging, and infrared capability; 86 towers; and hundreds of cameras, night-vision goggles, fiber-optic inspection scopes, and mobile surveillance systems. • $1 billion to expand the E-Verify System, a computerized data network that allows employers to check the immigration status of potential workers, and build a "photo tool" that allows a company to match applicants to photos in the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services Database. • Development of "fraud-resistant, tamper-resistant, wear-resistant, and identity theft-resistant social security cards.“

10. The Examiner • The U.S. military should be used to defend our border with Mexico. U.S. combat troops are used to patrol the borders which define Iraq and Afghanistan. While protecting the borders of foreign lands has been a priority for both Presidents Bush and Obama, neither has ever shown a portion of that commitment to their own country. Illegal aliens account for 29 percent of our total prison population. Many more Mexican criminals still roam our streets. One million Mexican criminals is the equivalent to 50 divisions of enemy soldiers within this country. The Mexican border could and should be made a permanent duty station for U.S. troops. This would allow the Border Patrol to fully staff the official entry points, which would dramatically reduce the amount of drugs and number of criminals coming into this country through those checkpoints on a daily basis. We have the resources to defend this nation; we need only the political will to do so.

11. Theresa May • Living in UK to get tougher for illegal immigrants. They will find it harder to set up home in the UK under planned laws. The Immigration Bill would force private landlords to quiz tenants about their immigration status and restrict access to bank accounts for people in the country without permission. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24469584

12. Mark Harper • The Immigration Bill will stop migrants using public services to which they are not entitled, reduce the pull factors which encourage people to come to the UK and make it easier to remove people who should not be here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24469584

13. Express UK • Immigration needs to be controlled as we have run out of room. A series of government reports last week exposed the horrifying break-up of traditional Britain. Nearly a third of residents of these cities are members of a non-white ethnic minority and almost one in 10 homes has not a single person speaking English as a first language. In large parts of London native English-speakers are in the minority. Ethnic division is a reality and the problem is getting worse, with 29 million Romanians and Bulgarians potentially to add to the mix next year. Not to mention 75 million Turks, whose application to join the EU he also enthusiastically supports. In the next 15 years the UK population will grow by over seven million to 70 million. Five million of that will be due to immigration. The debate was always about space, not race... and the preservation of England's cultural identity.

14. Conclusion • Burma has the population of 60 millions mainly Buddhists. Burma shares border with China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand. • Human beings live in the world but they have the different religions, faiths, perceptions, beliefs, traditions, customs and languages. We are part of the family of humans but all humans are not Burmese. • Neither the U.N. nor any country's government has the right to impose laws or regulations on us. Our entire Constitution describes how to function as one nation.

15. Conclusion • For example, private property has boundaries called property lines. The property owner is responsible for everything within those lines. No unauthorized persons have the right to cross over those lines. Likewise, no unauthorized persons have the right to enter our country. We have a responsibility to limit how many people may enter. We have the responsibility to determine whether or not they will be an asset to our nation. • If I, as a property owner, protect animals on my property, I will prevent a hunter from trespassing and hunting them. It's the same situation with our country's immigration laws. If my personal property is so large that I can't protect it from unwanted people or animals from coming in, then I fence it off.

16. Conclusion • Burma is facing illegal immigrants intruding from Bangladesh for decades. These illegal Bengalis from Bangladesh created fake ethnic name called (so-called Rohingya) unlawfully claiming part of Burma as theirs, committing crimes against humanity and massacring on local indigenous Arakanese of Burma because we can’t control the border securely in the past. • Tackling corruption of immigration officials, proper and effective patrolling of borders and erecting a barrier along with Bangladesh is recommended. The defence of our citizens is the very first obligation of our government. It must be done at any cost. So, I personally support that there should be the borders between nations and I strongly believe in national sovereignty.