When talking about migration, it is important that we talk about borders. For those born in the UK, who hold a British passport and are free to come and go, visit other places and return home, borders may not feel like a big part of life. They may solely allude to the often annoying bureaucratic processes one must go through when entering and exiting another country, or when applying for a visa to visit, study or work elsewhere.
However, for many people – especially those from former colonised countries – borders are defining. They limit one’s ability to even consider travelling elsewhere, with some nationalities facing exorbitant fees and long bureaucratic visa processes to visit other countries – especially those in the ‘Global North’. For this group, the world becomes smaller and less accessible – they cannot travel to places they would like to see, move or work elsewhere, or even visit friends and family living abroad.
It is with that in mind that we are proposing this new shared vision. We think it is important to recognise that the borders that separate us today are not natural – they have been imagined, implemented, and militarised. When we treat borders as constructed and not a natural part of life, we open space to consider why they exist, who they serve, and question the harm, violence, and dehumanisation they normalise.
Borders have expanded beyond physical ‘check points’ to impact many aspects of life – from schools, workplaces, hospitals to other community spaces. Even without us realising it, borders are already present in our day-to-day. From when you are asked for a passport or for a proof you have the ‘right to live in the UK’ in order to access the NHS, to register for university, rent or buy a property, and after being offered a job. All these checks have been put in place because of our border system. They were not always there, nor do they have to continue to exist.
Too many examples demonstrate the unfair and disproportionate impact that borders have on racialised communities. From those in the Windrush Generation who after a lifetime in the UK became destitute, lost their jobs and died as a direct result of our dehumanising border system, through to the people of colour who are denied a place to rent because they ‘look’ foreign, to the young people who grow up in the UK dreaming of attending university only to find out they are not entitled to student financing, cannot register for their courses or even work.
Beyond this, the violence perpetrated by borders affects people’s bodies and minds, creating long-lasting effects to their health and wellbeing. There are countless examples of the life-changing effect these policies have had on people. From young people who struggled with depression following the devastating impact their lack of status has had in their lives, those who became ill and destitute due to the emotional and financial stress caused by our border system, to those who have ended their lives while facing indefinite detention in immigration removal centres across the country.
All of these are avoidable, and yet they have become a common part of our border system – and migrants’ lives. If we want to achieve a socially just future, we must contend with the uncomfortable reality that borders are built on and reinforce systemic forms of oppression. This is clear when you examine who is welcome and who the government wants to stop from joining our communities. Borders disproportionately affect people who experience racism, anti-Blackness, ableism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, gender and class discrimination, especially when they are from the ‘Global South’.
More broadly, borders act to reinforce the extractive and exploitative social, political, and economic systems that prioritise profit over people’s lives, normalising and strengthening (neo)colonialism and economic extraction. If our goal is to build a world in which everyone is equal and able to thrive, then we must interrogate and ultimately dismantle the systems and structures that prevent this.