Peter Kropotkin - what are your opinions on immigration and borders?
I believe borders are artificial and harmful. Borders were invented by governments and elites to restrict freedom of movement, to maintain economic exploitation, and to justify wars.
Borders do not protect people—they protect property owners and the power of the state.
I believe human beings are instinctively cooperative and often migratory; borders oppose both these impulses.
People migrate due to poverty, famine, war, land dispossession, and economic inequality—conditions that are usually created by the capitalist systems of wealthier nations.
Immigrants are not the cause of instability. Capitalism is. Migration is a symptom of worldwide inequality. People have the right to move where life is viable. Free Movement needs to be a Natural Human Right. In a rational, cooperative society, the movement of people would be completely unrestricted. Human freedom includes the right to move.
I reject the idea that governments have the right to tell peaceful human beings where they may or may not live. I insist that no person is “illegal.” — No state owns human beings. — No boundary should prevent a human being from seeking a better life.
To me, restricting movement is as absurd as restricting access to food or shelter.
Anti-immigrant fear has always been manufactured by the wealthy elites - they use anti-immigration, nationalism and racism to divide workers so the workers don’t unite against exploitation. Politicians backed by wealthy elites intentionally stir up fear of immigrants to distract the people from the reality of their exploitation and the resulting economic inequality. Employers use these divisions to weaken labor solidarity. Racism is a tool of class rule.
The enemy of the workers is not the immigrant. The enemy is the system that keeps both workers and immigrants poor.
I believe solidarity is a universal principle. Cooperation across cultures is natural. Humans thrive when they share knowledge, land, resources, and labor. The future depends on internationalism, not nationalism.
I support sanctuary movements, migrant mutual aid networks, transnational labor solidarity, cross-border organizing, and abolition of immigration enforcement systems.
I believe the “threats” attributed to immigrants are exaggerated and fabricated by nation states. Governments manufacture fear to justify control.
I believe crime comes from deprivation, not immigration. Jobs are taken by bosses, not by migrants. Scarcity is artificially created by capitalism.
Resources are abundant enough to create a society where all can live well without exclusion or fear-mongering.
My ideal vision of the world is no borders, no immigration enforcement, freedom of movement for all people, local cooperative communities welcoming newcomers, economic equality, shared land and resources managed collectively.
Only when borders disappear can humanity fully practice mutual aid on a global scale.