What Do Borders Protect People From - Essay Example

? HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE goes here] [your goes here] s [due the paper] What Do Borders Protect Us From? A border is a limit to the boundaries of a country which separates it from the neighboring countries. Borders protect the sovereignty of a country and provide a number of considerable benefits, such as, reduction in illegal immigration, reduction in drug trafficking, and improved national security. According to Inda and Rosaldo (2002), borders protect the original culture of a society from the effects of globalization. Let us discuss these factors in some detail in order to know how borders protect us from different national, social, and economic problems. 1. Borders Reduce Crimes Borders protect us from a large number of crimes. Border security forces stop illegal immigrants from entering the premises of a country. Illegal immigrants pose a great threat to the overall safety of the citizens of a country. Increase in the number of crimes and drug trafficking are two of the most noteworthy problems that illegal immigrants cause in any particular country. Illegal immigration refers to the process of crossing the borders of a country illegally. Illegal immigrants are such people who do not have legal documents which can help them enter the premises of a country in a legal way. Such people use illegal ways to cross the borders of well-developed countries. The intent of most of such people is to earn money through illegal ways because they do not have legal work documents with them using which they can earn legal money. Border security forces protect us from such people by continuously looking for people crossing the borders of their countries without legal documents. Almost every country has a proper border security force which protects the borders of the country. The main aim of border forces is to look for suspected people moving near the borders. Most of such people are usually illegal immigrants who are in continuous search of hidden paths through which they can cross the border without coming in sight of the border security forces. A large number of illegal immigrants fall into criminal activities when they find it difficult to earn their livings through legal ways. Crimes, such as, rapes, drug trafficking, violence, and terrorist attacks inject terror in the minds of the citizens. An increase in the number of terrorist attacks in a country and threats of terrorism can also be associated with the presence of a large number of illegal immigrations in the country. The well-known incident of 9/11 which took away the lives of thousands of people is also an outcome of illegal immigration. The terrorists entered the premises of the United States of America illegally and launched a terrorist attack on the world trade center. Since then, the government of America has increased its border security to make its borders safe and secure for the citizens of America. It is a fact that borders ensure safety and security of citizens. If a country will not have any borders, everyone will get the opportunity to enter the premises of the country while destroying the peace of the society. Therefore, we can say that borders ensure safety of citizens by controlling the arrival of suspected people. 2. Borders Improve Economy Borders of a country play a vital role in improving economy of a country. The economy of a country having clearly defined borders flourishes more rapidly and at a constant pace because the government of that country can set proper economic and infrastructural policies based on accurate calculations of the total area of the country. On the other hand, the government of a country having weak borders finds it difficult to design a proper economic policy based on total area of the country. Moreover borders reduce illegal immigrations which also results in improving the economy of a country. Illegal immigrations harm the economy of a country as they reduce the number of job opportunities for local people, increase poverty, and decrease foreign investment in immigrant-populated areas because of increased number of crimes. Borders reduce illegal immigrations and play a vital role in improving the economy of a country. 3. Borders Reduce Drug Trafficking Borders also reduce drug trafficking, which is another critical issue associated with illegal immigrations. Drug trafficking is an illegal business of drugs which earns a lot of money to drug manufacturers, dealers, and other people associated with the network. According to Little, Smith and White (2005), drug trafficking is a business expanded all over the world. It takes place through illegal means because no government allows any person to smuggle drugs from one country to some other country. It is such a harmful business that affects the lives of local citizens as a large number of young people become easy targets of drug providers. Border security forces are in continuous search of such people who want to transfer illegal drugs and controlled substances from drug dealers to the citizens of a county. When there will be no borders, there will be no border security force which will look for such criminals to arrest them. If we think from a broader perspective, we will come to know that borders protect a country and its citizens to a large extent from many destructive scenarios, such as, increased drug trafficking. The United States of America is one of those countries that are facing the issue of drug trafficking. The reason is that the United States holds a large number of illegal immigrants who enter the premises of the country just to smuggle drugs from neighboring countries to the drug dealers present in the United States. The government of the United States of America has taken considerable measures to eliminate the chances of drug trafficking from Caribbean and the South-Western borders. Now, if we think for a while that there is no border at that place, the Mexican drug dealers will find it very easy to smuggle drugs from their place to the people of the United States. Some reports from the CNN news channel confirm that the goal of most of the Mexican illegal immigrants who cross the South-Western border of the United States is to smuggle drugs and controlled substances to the drug dealers working already in the United States. Such people have a complete awareness of the paths that they can use to cross the borders of the United States. However, such people put their lives at risk while crossing the borders illegally because there is always a chance of getting caught by the border security personnel who sometimes arrest them and sometimes shoot them to death at the spot. Borders make it difficult for drug dealers to supply drugs from one place to another. Therefore, we can say that borders ensure safety of citizens as they put a large block in the way of people doing illegal businesses. In the United States, drug trafficking normally takes place through South-western borders where there are large hubs of Mexican drug dealers and manufacturers. The Mexico/United States border is the main point of entry for drug traffickers who smuggle drugs from neighboring areas to the United States of America. The boundaries between Mexico and American border states have some loop holes which provide the way for drug traffickers to smuggle drugs. As Brown (2001, p. 14) states, “US attempts to police its border with Mexico have been ineffective”. There are many loop holes in the Mexican/U.S. border which make it easy for the drug smugglers to bring illegal drugs to the United States. According to Held, Goldblatt, McGrew and Perraton (1999, p. 323), the United States of America finds it difficult to patrol the long U.S./Mexico border. The government of America needs to establish proper boundaries at that border to get rid of the issue of drug trafficking. 4. Borders Improve National Security According to Fry and O’Hagan (2000), borders improve national security of a country. A country having fully defined borders is less prone to outside attacks as compared to a country having porous borders. Borders eliminate insecurities of life and make people live their lives without any fear of any outside invasion. A country without proper boundaries is likely to face a number of social, political, and economic problems. A country having porous borders provides opportunity to outsiders to invade and occupy the land. On the other hand, there is no issue of invasion and land occupation in case of properly defined boundaries. People living in a country having clear borders live their lives freely without any danger of outside invasion. Borderless areas are more prone to wars between countries. For example, two neighboring countries can put their armies into war to occupy a piece of land having no clear boundaries. The governments of both countries can claim the ownership of the disputed piece of land. In such cases, both countries face economic downfall as they have to ruin a lot of money to continue the war. Clear and well-established borders eliminate such situations between neighboring countries making the lives of the citizens safe and secure. These were some of the main social and economic benefits that citizens and nations get due to well-defined borders. References Brown, C., 2001. Understanding International Relations. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave. Fry, G. and O’Hagan, J., 2000. Contending Images of World Politics. London: Macmillan Press. Held, D., Goldblatt, D., McGrew, A. and Perraton, J., 1999. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Inda, J. and Rosaldo, R., 2002. The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Little, R., Smith, M. and White, B., 2005. Issues in World Politics. 3rd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More