Live data from Hacker News

Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

thenation.com

251–260 of 270 posts

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#251
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the U.S. is still one country.

Only to outsiders because individual states do not make treaties with foreign countries. However states do sometimes send their own commercial ambassadors and meet with world leaders. States also retain full sovereignty of their territory except for limited cases and maintain their own armies navies and air forces

> States ... maintain their own armies navies and air forces

Say what?

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#252
The norwegian diplomat baron Fritz Wedel Jarlsberg, managed to make Svalbard Norwegian territory during the ongoing peace negotiations in Paris after world war 1. It is rumoured that the french diplomat leading the negotitations was Fritz’ secret lover.

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only to outsiders because individual states do not make treaties with foreign countries. However states do sometimes send their own commercial ambassadors and meet with world leaders. States also retain full sovereignty of their territory except for limited cases and maintain their own armies navies and air forces

> States ... maintain their own armies navies and air forces Say what?

This is true. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_defense_force

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many non-Einsteins from Africa and Asia would want to move to Western countries if given a chance? a few hundred million? A billion? How does a say Germany or France support a couple hundred more million people all at once? I think open borders is inherently a call for decreasing standards of living for the populations of those countries where most of the migration would be directed to. I just can't picture a sce…

Given that a whole lot of Western non-Einsteins moved to Africa/Asia as colonizers, looted and killed everything they could, stripped those countries bare and used that loot to build infrastructure in Euro-America, perhaps they should return the money they took with interest and no one will want to come.

[deleted]

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#255
post #87

Nonsense. The airport has no need of additional procedures because it is gatewayed by Norway (it's not an international airport). If you arrive there by boat, things look well different: > Visiting yachts must obtain a cruising permit before arrival and make arrangements for special insurance to cover the possible cost of a search and rescue operation. Also compulsory is having a gun to protect the crew from possible…

I heard somewhere that in most if not all countries you don't need a visa to enter by boat. Maybe this is a truth with modifocation as well?

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the places with the strictest border controls are often those that are quite desirable cheeky counterexample: North Korea

Pay a bit of money in China and you'll have a visa in no time. That's doesn't work with, say, Switzerland, at least not with a similar amount of money.

My aunt was forced to leave China as her husband's work there (for some multinational) was done. Instead, she started her own business (not for the money, but to have a presence which 'stimulates the local economy'). Now she's allowed to stay in China.

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many non-Einsteins from Africa and Asia would want to move to Western countries if given a chance? a few hundred million? A billion? How does a say Germany or France support a couple hundred more million people all at once? I think open borders is inherently a call for decreasing standards of living for the populations of those countries where most of the migration would be directed to. I just can't picture a sce…

Given that a whole lot of Western non-Einsteins moved to Africa/Asia as colonizers, looted and killed everything they could, stripped those countries bare and used that loot to build infrastructure in Euro-America, perhaps they should return the money they took with interest and no one will want to come.

Sounds fair. Also the Scandinavians should pay reparations to Britain and France for everything the Vikings looted. And Mali should repay Ghana for the actions of the Manden Kurufaba. And so on.

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#258
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“it's a prosperous enough country” define prosperous please. from my knowledge argentina is a financial basket case since a century ago.

A century ago it was the world's 10th wealthiest state per capita. Right now it tops the list of the upper middle-income group, so is almost a high-income country, and per capita is richer than, for example, Russia.

Exactly. It went from a rich nation to a poor nation, to default, back to poor and free markets, then to progress then again back to the IMF. It’s a classical basket case country.

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#259
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it’s not an “open border”. on the contrary. there are actual physical borders between schengen countries and the rest of the eu. whenever you enter/exit schengen you have to pass border control.

If your passport shows you're an EU citizen, you're allowed to enter. So it's an open border for EU citizens.

that’s not how schengen borders work. it’s not an open border. it’s an actual border. and yes, you can be banned from travelling into schengen even if you have an eu passport.

Re: Svalbard is as close as you can get to a place with open borders

#260

Antarctica too: if you can get there, you can step onto the ice. There's a pattern here: the only places with open borders are places where you wouldn't really want to live anyway, while the places with the strictest border controls are often those that are quite desirable.

Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria, and Netherlands are some of the most prosperous countries in the world, and they have an open border with 28 other countries — some of which can be easily classified as very poor and undesirable places.

Ireland is not in Schengen
Post reply on HN