Borders are always open in nature
It is only force - political, military, legal - that can hold them closed against the natural, inevitable, and justifiable movement of our human family.
Hello friends - as March opens the door to spring, I’m sharing more thoughts on the natural movement of our human family around our amazing planet.
While power structures require borders, human beings have always crossed them, and will always cross them. This past week, a work colleague shared a story of her husband’s great grandparents, who came to Washington from New Mexico; they wanted to go farther north, to cross into Canada. But Canadian authorities said no, so they settled in northing Washington state, becoming itinerant farmworkers. Two generations later, a grandson built immense wealth in land and livestock, wealth that still supports many of the extended family.
My coworker told this story with justifiable pride. I couldn’t help but think of other conversations we’ve had, in which the colleague complained bitterly about the number of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. It seemed to me that the main distinction between pride and bitterness was the political meaning of a border.
Her in-laws’ ancestors, lucky enough to be born north of the U.S.’s southern border, moved north to find greater opportunity. They found it, and built a family legacy. Folks unlucky enough to be born just a few miles further south are perceived as enemies, even though they are engaged in precisely the same search.
Of course, that border means something else, too: it helps define an understanding of ethnicity and race. We assign value to our neighbors based on a misbegotten conception of race as related to place of birth or color of skin.
As a Washingtonian, it’s considered my unquestioned right to relocate to another state for whatever reason I choose. I can move to Idaho for lower taxes, or to California for better weather. I can move to a state whose current government more closely aligns with my values. Or, I can move to a state where I want to change everything.
I can follow jobs or family, dreams or opportunities. I can run from loss, change, constriction, or fear. No one official will ever need to know my reasons, and I will never need to prove that those reasons fall within legal limits. Humans have always moved from one place to another, and we are all of a single race. We build relationships with one another, build cultural practices, build our lives, and then we move again.
Borders, in other words, are always open in nature. It is only force - political, military, legal - that can hold them closed.
Thank you for reading.