Beyond Borders: Towards the Ethics of Unbounded Inclusiveness

Abstract

Borders remain vitally important features of our political world. Throughout the Global North, the common response to the broad challenges and the multiple overlapping crises has been to regress to state-centric thinking and nationalist agendas and revert to ad-hoc border closures. We have witnessed a consistent drive for ever stricter border and migration policies, which are not limited to the mere border management, but become an inherent part of a wide range of polices and societal practices. The premise assumed herein is that borders do not only divide physical space, but are also used increasingly to sort people according to the degree of their belonging. The question under scrutiny here is that how to balance the calls for the freedom of movement against the right to freedom of association? I seek to unravel this conundrum by addressing the arguments used to support these, which might appear as inherently, opposite stands. In advocating for unbounded inclusiveness, I seek to challenge the widely accepted notion that people are from a certain territorially demarcated place, and their rights, duties – and opportunities in life, ought to remain based on their arbitrary fact.