Ask HN: Does the world need a “passport equality” movement?

Any temporary restriction will become permanent. They always tell people it is going to be "temporary" and "there will be protections put in place". All it does is normalise such restrictions and then when anyone objects to people will say "Well it been in place now for a while, it is normal, most people are fine with it, you must have something to hide".

The same thing is done time and time again and nobody becomes any the wiser.

If it was the point of nationhood then wouldn't we expect immigration control to be one of the first things new nations implement?

Yet the United States had wide open borders until 1875, 83-99 years (depending on who you ask) into nationhood. It wasn't until the Page Act in 1875 that restricted immigration of Chinese women that the US started controlling immigration.

That was followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which extended restrictions to include men.

By the end of the century they had added some restrictions on non-Chinese immigrants such as a small immigration tax, a requirement that you could take care of yourself, and a requirements that you were diseases free.

In 1917 a literacy test was added, but you could take it in your native language.

It wasn't until 1924 that the US got restrictions the seriously limited integration beyond the anti-Chinese limits. The Immigration Act of 1924 introduced per-country limits based on how many people in each country were in the US in 1890.

The official goal was to "preserve the ideal of US homogeneity". But no one really cared whether or not say the ratio of Scots to French in the US was changing. It was almost certainly about Jews.

The European countries whose contribution to US immigration had increased disproportionately were largely those that had greatly stepped up persecution of Jews, and it was Jews trying to escape that persecution that was making the immigration increases from there disproportional.

By limiting those countries based on 1890 levels they could reduce the number of Jews that got in. That's not as effective as an actual limit on Jews, but even in 1924 that would have been difficult to do.

I took a civics test for Norway. I had a 6 week civics class, and they try to give the class and the test in a language you know. Mine was in English, as was my test (I'll have to take it in Norwegian before citizenship, as they changed the rules).

Most things on the test were very practical things indeed. No need to, for example, memorize every political party that is on the national ballot, for example, and only a question or two (tops) that wanted a historical date at all. The vast majority asked things about the health care system, schooling system, and basic useful things like that. The class added more detail, but they tested basics. The test is electronic, taken at a school so it is secure (no bags/phones at your computer, for example). I could get on a government website and take a practice test, too.

I'm American. The american test is more concerned with you learning the propaganda of the country and memorizing dates than it with making sure you can navigate different systems in society. "Topics about government and history", they say. The actual website states, "Although USCIS is aware that there may be additional correct answers to the civics questions, applicants are encouraged to respond to the questions using the answers provided below." [1] They aren't testing how well you can navigate the system or things you'll need to, say, drive: Hence, insane.

Though admittedly, it is shorter than I expected: They only ask 20 out of 128 questions (mine was 30ish) - and you only have to get 12 right. Unfortunately, it is also oral, so (for me) it would be much more stressful, especially considering the brutish formality that a lot of American institutions have.

[1] https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/the-2020-v....

On the other hand, I had practice tests on a computer (at a school). My test was full of practical things and only a little history: Mine asked me about using the health care system and the schooling system and things like that - the sort of thing that once you learned general knowledge, you didn't have to worry too much if you couldn't remember a historical name or date. I took the civics test required for Norway, by the way, and they have a list of languages you could take it in. Of course, I had to take it to continue my residence so more folks wind up taking it.

Edit, forgotten thing: Whether or not someone is stateless depends on the home country, but generally, it won't - mostly because the US doesn't make you give up citizenship before you are granted on in the US. If you want to become a US citizen, though, your citizenship is going to depend, in part, on this civics test. This is what I was referring to.

https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/the-2020-v....

The problem is that neoliberals and capitalists don’t want this because then they can’t have as cheap of a slave class that they currently do. HN is full of these types and why you’re not seeing this recognized further up.

Wage inequality is the biggest barrier to a universal passport. You need to get this part done first - and then universal passport and removal of boarders will be good. Then we can just have the United earth federation or whatever BS.

But that’s all like 1,000 years from now. By then - I presume we’ll have killed most of our species off and regress back to 1,000 AD.