Is a world without borders a cause for celebration?

In the past few decades, rapid globalization that came in tandem

with technological advancement has greatly transformed the world
today. Since the advent of Internet and advanced transport means,
there has been unprecedented high mobility of information, people,
and goods across the globe and the notion of country borders is
weakening because of the high permeability. This is definitely good
news to the world economy: with fewer trade barriers, it becomes
possible for countries to specialize in specific areas, leading to
greater productivity and economic growth. However, the hard truth
is that while spicing up the economy, more permeable borders also
put some of the countries interest under jeopardy: strong influx of
immigrants can dilute indigenous cultures; weak border control
invites external threats; and a permeable border also exacerbates
spreading of a crisis across countries. If borders were really to be
removed, countries will lose the most basic line of defense to ward
off harmful factors and hardly anyone will be in the mood for
celebration.
On the surface, a world without borders is a perfect ingredient for a
fast-growing world economy, and the effect can already been seen
in various parts of the world. By opening up the border to trade and
investment, a country is able to exchange goods and services with
others and develop new industries when foreign companies make
investments. More importantly, the country will be able to specialize
in a few industries instead of producing everything it needs, and this
consequently leads to higher productivity. This is because when a
country produces more of one specific good, more experience can
be gained and investments will be made such as purchase of hightech machines. As a result, the production method will be improved
more rapidly and productivity will increase. When this happens in
most countries across the globe, technological advancement will be
faster than ever and the world economy will surely bloom. In fact,
being open to other countries is exactly how Singapore thrived to
become a first-world country within half a century: by opening up to
trade and investment, Singapore managed to focus on the service
industry with its highly educated population and ultimately became
the global financial hub. If Singapore were to be less open, it would
have to produce more food and daily necessities like clothes that
require large amount of labor and land exactly what it lacks and
it would definitely not see as much growth as today. Thus, it seems
rational that countries should work towards a world without borders
so that the economies can be benefitted to a large extent.
However, one should not be blinded by the monetary gains while
overlooking some intangible harm that can be brought when
countries get more and more connected: as the domestic population
is exposed to other cultures, their very own way of life may be

affected and this can lead to significant erosion of domestic culture

and values. With the advancement of information technology, one is
able to access information from all over the world and elements
from other cultures may be viewed as exotic and fashionable,
generating a rash for foreign cultures. This inevitably modifies
peoples way of life overtime and the original culture and values
may be lost. This can be seen most evidently in China: for decades,
Western culture has been spreading across China in all forms:
restaurants that serve Western food such as steaks can be found in
almost all cities; a large number of Hollywood movies are played in
cinemas every year; and popular US TV series such as Growing
Pains and The Big Bang Theory are widely viewed on the Internet.
Meanwhile, it also appears that the Chinese traditions are losing out:
today, most young people in China celebrate Western festivals like
Christmas and Valentines Day while fewer and fewer people
celebrate traditional Chinese festivals like Mid-Autumn Festival.
Furthermore, the liberal Western culture also dilutes familial values,
a possible factor that contributed to the steady increase in divorce
rate in China. Thus, the imminent threat to indigenous culture posed
by foreign cultures should not be overlooked and a country should
not allow totally free cross-border transfer of information.
Furthermore a more permeable border can make it easier for
external threats, such as terrorism, to threaten the stability of the
country. Due to the fact that certain branches of religion have
radical beliefs, terrorism has emerged as a growing new form of
destabilizer with the sole aim of doing damage to other countries.
Without strict border control, it will become increasingly easy for
terrorists to sneak into other countries and carry out terrorist
attacks, putting the society under great jeopardy. For example, since
European countries opened up their borders for refugees from
Middle East, it has long been suspected that potential terrorists may
enter the continent under disguise. In fact, in the recent terrorist
attack in Brussels, three of the terrorists were identified as Syrian
refugees who sneaked into Europe unnoticed, a warning sign that
the current permeable European border may actually make the
continent more and more vulnerable to external threats. Hence, a
world without borders should hardly be advocated, as it will be
almost unfeasible to talk about national security then.
Last but not least, border control also acts as a deterrent to the
spreading of a potential crisis and forgoing borders will only expose
countries to those crises. When people are allowed to move across
borders relatively freely, they may unintentionally carry a domestic
threat abroad, such as unidentified viruses or foreign animal
species. The effect is further exaggerated by the advanced
transport technology today: it takes only one day to travel across
the earth, making it more probable for an individual to carry a crisis
abroad. For example, during the SARS period, almost all Asian

countries were affected because of the insufficient attention to the

flow of people in the area at the early stage, resulting in a huge
regional crisis that could have been contained in China if the
neighboring countries exerted border control and restricted the flow
of migrants early. As such, it was learnt the hard way that border
control plays a tremendous role in fighting a crisis and a world
without borders will be unimaginably vulnerable.
In conclusion, despite the fact that the world can experience
economic bloom without borders, one should not fail to realize the
important role and function of borders as a line of defense to protect
the indigenous society, and a country can hardly do without borders.
History has already provided examples, in a smaller scale, of how a
world without border would be like, and its prospect is nowhere near
heartening. As such, countries should be very careful when dealing
with borders: they certainly need to remain open to opportunities,
but it is also essential to closely monitor what goes across the
border and completely remove borders will only spell doom for
them.