We are accustomed to taking for granted certain political assertions that, even if analyzed briefly, turn out to be fallacies without any historical support. One of them is that migration is an issue related to state sovereignty, while foreigners compete for jobs against national citizens. To these two statements of dubious empirical reality, we must add the idea that all foreigners who seek their livelihood far from their place of birth are potential criminals.
History shows that population movements have been constant between different territories on the planet, a reality that goes beyond the existence of recent modern states. In fact, many current countries have been built thanks to migration. The examples of Argentina and the United States on this continent alone demonstrate this.
Likewise, it is known that the greater number of contemporary migrants do not compete for jobs with locals, since they perform jobs that the latter do not want to do. In addition to providing labor, foreigners often boost the economy with economic initiatives that can even become promising business proposals. The case of many Mexicans in the United States, who have become successful entrepreneurs, is a good example.
The problem related to migration is one that affects other realities visible in all societies: the distinction between rich and poor. The former are not questioned, while the latter become a problem because they seek subsistence outside their land of birth. The former enter the states regularly, while for the latter, their only option is to enter their destinations irregularly. In addition to these circumstances, visible in any country, what is undeniable is that no society has ever lived in isolation, and therefore, confinement behind borders is a falsehood.
Today, with the arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency, belligerent rhetoric against migrants is being revived, as if the United States had not been built with them. The best example is his family. His paternal grandfather was born in the still ununified Germany and, like so many Europeans, moved to America. The same can be said of his mother, an economic migrant in the United States between the world wars.
To consider the closure of borders, a kind of territorial confinement, as the solution to our world’s problems ignores the history of humanity and is based on falsehoods, as demonstrated by the case of the current US president. All human beings originate from movements, more or less recent in time, between territories before or after the existence of nation states. Therefore, history, so often used to reaffirm sovereignty and territorial control, should also serve to understand that human movements have been and are fundamental to the very construction of a diverse humanity.
Original article by Miguel Lisbona Guillén, Chiapas Paralelo, June 4th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.