Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot
Fun fact: did you know passports were not required for travel before WW1?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport#History
During WW1, governments made them mandatory to monitor their borders more closely. After WW1, there was even talk of abolishing them!
But WW2 came and afterward, they became entrenched.
So next time you hear about government doing deals with each other for immigration/trade, note that they are merely giving you back a subset of freedoms that they already took away themselves.
Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot
@iju schengen is probably the best example in the world of why open borders don't make the world fall apart
you still have police/military dealing with law and order/peace, and they'd do that anyway.
in practise, moving to a country is hard no matter what the visa restrictions are, because you need to make sure you got a job and a place to live. plus there's the culture shock, the just general stress of anything. i'd bet most of the people who move somewhere would be productive and contribute.
Juɦo̞ Mæn̪t̪yˈs̠ɑ̝lo̞
TBF, movement was somewhat more difficult before WW1 if you didn't have a travel budget (and economic independence) comparable to Phileas Fogg.
And of course states also have more responsibilities these days.
Compare with the development of the Schengen area. It wasn't just about freedom of travel, it was also balance between right to social security, how freedom of work affected local labour unions, and the right to vote.
Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot
@JaneraTiciano how uncanny. i had that exact same observation, though i've never read dracula, but i did watch the 1990s film adaptation starrring Keanu Reeves.
they travel all over europe like they own the place!
dracula himself also makes an appearance in london. if dracula were alive today, he probably wouldn't be able to get a visa.
JaneraTiciano
@libreleah that was something that stood out to me so sharply when I read Dracula! The group hunting Dracula is passing from country to country without any passport or similar, and while that resembled my Schengen experience of the 2000s, I knew it was not something that was normal outside of the Schengen area. (and rip to Schengen, I hate what current politics have done to it)
Leah Rowe is not a Rowebot
@JaneraTiciano nowadays he will just use UPS air mail.
next-day delivery anywhere in the world
JaneraTiciano
@libreleah Dracula traveled as luggage, as he had to cross the ocean in his coffin 😉. I read Dracula while on vacation, so that may have influenced what I focused on.
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