A few weeks ago, between July 30th and July 31st, an estimated 60,000–72,000 people entered or attempted to enter the Spanish city of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco by land and sea, many swimming around the coastal barrier. Ceuta, located on the north coast of Africa, has approximately 80,000 inhabitants, separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar. It is viewed as a potential stepping stone to Europe for poor migrants in search of a better life, in spite of the fact that it is not part of the free-movement Schengen area. The sheer scale and speed of the movement, together with the apparent failure of Moroccan security forces to prevent it at the outset, have led to widespread suspicions that the episode was coordinated by criminal smugglers and deliberately facilitated by the Moroccan government.
Whatever the exact reasons behind the extraordinary influx of migrants into Ceuta, the episode is a vivid illustration of the untenability of cosmopolitan ideals of an open-border world. John Lennon once imagined, in a memorable lyric, a world “with no countries” and “nothing to kill or die for.” As a metaphor for a healed humanity, these lyrics are emotionally touching, but their vision of a borderless society does not play out beautifully in real-world conditions.
There are many reasons why open-border ideals are neither feasible nor just. Here are four:
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