ABSTRACT
The open-borders imagination thus affirms the territorial nature of governance, while a no-border imagination eliminates nation states and their borders altogether. This chapter explains the prospects of open borders and no border into dialog with each other. Conversely, the imagination of a world with open borders or without borders is often labeled “utopian.” Commentators typically use this label to dismiss the open-borders and no-border ideas outright, without seriously engaging with them. Calls for open borders and no border are first and foremost critiques of existing border regulations and of bordering practices that distinguish between people based on their place of birth, citizenship, ancestry, race, or wealth. Representing the liberal position for open borders, the political scientist Joseph Carens remarks that his path-breaking critique of border controls was not intended for implementation in any concrete way. The open-borders argument remains a negation and leaves open the manner in which an open-borders future could unfold.
