Article: Global Apartheid
Article: Global Apartheid
Systemic Injustice: Maintaining Global Apartheid through migration law and policy
The current rules that dictate international migration flows directly maintain a system of Global Apartheid. This means that as long as current migration laws and policies are maintained, the system of Global Apartheid will continue in its oppression, segregation, and expansion. In this article, we look more closely at the ways in which migration laws and policies play such a major contributing role in maintaining this system.
But first, what do we mean by “Global Apartheid”?
In short, Apartheid is a system which imposes and maintains the dominance of one group over any other through systemic oppression. In turn, Global Apartheid is a system which imposes the same, but on a global scale.
In the context of international migration, the Global North generally maintains dominance over the Global South, controlling the movement of people, goods, and wealth. The structure is of course more complex than this, and is not a binary division of Global North/South, but the key issue to note is that some states and regions of the world consistently exert dominance over others, and that dominance is generally an extension of colonial, racial, and class power relations.
The Global North, mostly composed of white, formerly-colonising (and therefore richer) societies, is reliant on the maintenance of an international system of inequality and systemic economic oppression of citizens from the Global South. And a key method of being able to maintain international inequality and systemic economic oppression is through creating an international migration policy that, effectively, restricts the freedom of movement of Global South citizens.
Global Apartheid and physical borders
An example of this connection between migration regimes and global apartheid is the enormous increase in physical borders over the last few decades. Fortified borders create a divide that stops migration flow from the first territory to the second territory. Although this can be between any territories, in practice the first territory is either a non-Global North state, or, more commonly, a state to which many citizens of Global South countries travelled, with the hope of crossing into the heart of the Global North. On the other hand, citizens of the Global North can freely enter many states of the Global South without a VISA, meaning that the restricted movement flow is not reciprocal or equal. In the context of Europe, most physical borders exist between non-European Union and European Union (EU) countries in order to stop migration of Global South citizens into the EU. The EU spends billions on so-called ‘security’ and ‘migration management at the external borders: border fences between Bulgaria and Turkey, Hungary and Serbia, Greece and Turkey, and many more countries, have all grown. The length of border fences at the EU's external borders and within the EU/Schengen area increased from 315 km to 2048 km from 2014 to 2022 - these borders are strengthened by a billion dollar industry of infrastructures and technologies. And of course outside the EU too - think of the thousands’ of kilometres of fence that separate the USA from Mexico, India from Bangladesh, Pakistan from Afghanistan and so on. These border walls exist for the same reason in all places, to physically segregate and control the movement of people - and the lower your country is on the list of ‘global south states’, the more segregation and fences you face.
Global Economic Inequality
For reasons stemming from the world’s exploitative imperialist history (but which fall outside the scope of this article for the time being), enormous divisions of wealth exist between countries in the Global North and Global South. Of course, this economic inequality is the driving dynamic of the Global North’s dominance over the Global South, and there are many forces that work to uphold this economic inequality. One example (though there are many) can be seen in global trade rules (set by the Global North) that openly favour Western industries over those of the Global South: industries in the Global North make more money, and people working within those industries profit accordingly, while those in the Global South generally earn significantly less. As a result, those who live in the Global South will likely remain poor despite working for a significant portion of their life, while those working in the Global North will earn disproportionately more. The result of this system is that economic inequality between the Global North and South continues to grow exponentially - upholding segregation and dominance of one group over the other.
The global migration regime maintains this apartheid by blocking Global South citizens from coming to the Global North, and, for example, accessing the Global North labour market. If migration rules did not restrict the freedom of movement of Global South citizens in this way, and the possibility of accessing jobs with Western salaries existed, the growing gap of inequality would at least slow - for instance through more frequent sending of remittances by those who worked in the Global North to family members who remained in the Global South home countries. But indeed, maintaining economic dominance and wealth over the Global South is often openly framed as a convincing and legitimate reason to restrict migration.
Not to mention, the Global North is inherently dependent on resource extraction and cheap labour from the Global South. This exploitation happens both within the Global South and in the Global North. For example, factories and mines within the Global South are the backbone of ‘luxury products’ trades, minerals in your smartphones, and economic growth in the Global North. At the same time, when the Global North does allow legal routes for migration from the Global South, these are through ‘guest worker programmes’ which allow migrants to come and perform cheap labour without the ability to access other work for a better wage, and usually without access to basic social rights or democratic participation. In so many ways, colonial and neocolonial dynamics decrease economic livelihoods of people in the Global South, while migration regimes take away economic opportunities abroad. In other words, economic inequality is purposefully maintained; wealth disparity inherently feeds Global Apartheid, and global migration rules make sure that economic inequality continues to favour the Global North over the Global South.
Paper borders in Global Apartheid
Now we arrive at the core of what currently underpins all border infrastructures, and this is the system surrounding passports and visas. The strength of any person’s passport in relation to their ability to internationally migrate is easily mapped on the Global passport index. Generally speaking, people from Global North countries can travel all over the world relatively easily – if they need a visa, the process is accessible, quick, and often automatic. In most cases, no visa is needed at all – the Global North citizen needs only to book a flight. This is because of the existing visa-waiver agreements between Global North countries that allow freedom of movement for each others’ citizens – like New Zealanders going to the EU, Europeans going to the USA and so on.
In stark contrast, there are almost no visa-free travel or visa waiver programmes for citizens from the Global South going to the Global North. And the visas that do exist are mostly inaccessible and involve long bureaucratic hurdles. They are mostly available to those with money, higher education and a so-called “highly skilled” job. At the same time, the people who decide to seek chances outside of their own country often do so as a result of circumstances created by the Global North’s meddling with the Global South: political destabilisation, the initiation of and backing of wars and conflict, exploitation of local resources and resultant economic disadvantage, are direct consequences of the Global North’s involvement in the Global South.
When people from the Global South decide to (or are forced to) seek chances outside of their own country or region, the international border regime means they have to resort to alternative migration pathways, consisting of dangerous journeys in their attempts to cross and avoid externalised, fortified, and internalised borders. As a result, tens of thousands of people have died on the way to Europe alone and undocumented people within Europe continue to face dire life circumstances. Even for those who arrive in Europe, they might then face physical and institutional segregation in reception centres far away from jobs, healthcare, and the rest of the society. It’s incredibly important to understand that the restrictions on freedom of movement aren’t universal - they are targeted and intersect with colonial-, race-, and class lines. The global migration regime discriminates against Global South citizens and the Global North claims this system is for its own self-protection, and that gating, policing, removing and letting people drown is necessary for its security. The practices of apartheid are state-sanctioned and state warranted forms of structural violence that cause people to die.
It wouldn’t require a radical overhaul to immediately start combating apartheid and saving lives - this could be achieved almost overnight by introducing equally accessible safe migration pathways regardless of nationality. In another, much larger sense, however, it’s clear that the gigantic border infrastructure must be demolished in its entirety to ensure a more equal freedom of movement for all. That’s why we fight domestic policies, parties, and ideologies, which uphold this apartheid.
Further reading
Border Regimes and the New Global Apartheid
The Global Mobility Infrastructure: Reconceptualising the Externalisation of Migration Control
Migration As Decolonization
The Autoimmunity of the EU’s Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders
The Global Mobility Divide: How Visa Policies Have Evolved over Time
Looking for ways to resist global apartheid?
Systemic Injustice: Maintaining Global Apartheid through migration law and policy
The current rules that dictate international migration flows directly maintain a system of Global Apartheid. This means that as long as current migration laws and policies are maintained, the system of Global Apartheid will continue in its oppression, segregation, and expansion. In this article, we look more closely at the ways in which migration laws and policies play such a major contributing role in maintaining this system.
But first, what do we mean by “Global Apartheid”?
In short, Apartheid is a system which imposes and maintains the dominance of one group over any other through systemic oppression. In turn, Global Apartheid is a system which imposes the same, but on a global scale.
In the context of international migration, the Global North generally maintains dominance over the Global South, controlling the movement of people, goods, and wealth. The structure is of course more complex than this, and is not a binary division of Global North/South, but the key issue to note is that some states and regions of the world consistently exert dominance over others, and that dominance is generally an extension of colonial, racial, and class power relations.
The Global North, mostly composed of white, formerly-colonising (and therefore richer) societies, is reliant on the maintenance of an international system of inequality and systemic economic oppression of citizens from the Global South. And a key method of being able to maintain international inequality and systemic economic oppression is through creating an international migration policy that, effectively, restricts the freedom of movement of Global South citizens.
Global Apartheid and physical borders
An example of this connection between migration regimes and global apartheid is the enormous increase in physical borders over the last few decades. Fortified borders create a divide that stops migration flow from the first territory to the second territory. Although this can be between any territories, in practice the first territory is either a non-Global North state, or, more commonly, a state to which many citizens of Global South countries travelled, with the hope of crossing into the heart of the Global North. On the other hand, citizens of the Global North can freely enter many states of the Global South without a VISA, meaning that the restricted movement flow is not reciprocal or equal. In the context of Europe, most physical borders exist between non-European Union and European Union (EU) countries in order to stop migration of Global South citizens into the EU. The EU spends billions on so-called ‘security’ and ‘migration management at the external borders: border fences between Bulgaria and Turkey, Hungary and Serbia, Greece and Turkey, and many more countries, have all grown. The length of border fences at the EU's external borders and within the EU/Schengen area increased from 315 km to 2048 km from 2014 to 2022 - these borders are strengthened by a billion dollar industry of infrastructures and technologies. And of course outside the EU too - think of the thousands’ of kilometres of fence that separate the USA from Mexico, India from Bangladesh, Pakistan from Afghanistan and so on. These border walls exist for the same reason in all places, to physically segregate and control the movement of people - and the lower your country is on the list of ‘global south states’, the more segregation and fences you face.
Global Economic Inequality
For reasons stemming from the world’s exploitative imperialist history (but which fall outside the scope of this article for the time being), enormous divisions of wealth exist between countries in the Global North and Global South. Of course, this economic inequality is the driving dynamic of the Global North’s dominance over the Global South, and there are many forces that work to uphold this economic inequality. One example (though there are many) can be seen in global trade rules (set by the Global North) that openly favour Western industries over those of the Global South: industries in the Global North make more money, and people working within those industries profit accordingly, while those in the Global South generally earn significantly less. As a result, those who live in the Global South will likely remain poor despite working for a significant portion of their life, while those working in the Global North will earn disproportionately more. The result of this system is that economic inequality between the Global North and South continues to grow exponentially - upholding segregation and dominance of one group over the other.
The global migration regime maintains this apartheid by blocking Global South citizens from coming to the Global North, and, for example, accessing the Global North labour market. If migration rules did not restrict the freedom of movement of Global South citizens in this way, and the possibility of accessing jobs with Western salaries existed, the growing gap of inequality would at least slow - for instance through more frequent sending of remittances by those who worked in the Global North to family members who remained in the Global South home countries. But indeed, maintaining economic dominance and wealth over the Global South is often openly framed as a convincing and legitimate reason to restrict migration.
Not to mention, the Global North is inherently dependent on resource extraction and cheap labour from the Global South. This exploitation happens both within the Global South and in the Global North. For example, factories and mines within the Global South are the backbone of ‘luxury products’ trades, minerals in your smartphones, and economic growth in the Global North. At the same time, when the Global North does allow legal routes for migration from the Global South, these are through ‘guest worker programmes’ which allow migrants to come and perform cheap labour without the ability to access other work for a better wage, and usually without access to basic social rights or democratic participation. In so many ways, colonial and neocolonial dynamics decrease economic livelihoods of people in the Global South, while migration regimes take away economic opportunities abroad. In other words, economic inequality is purposefully maintained; wealth disparity inherently feeds Global Apartheid, and global migration rules make sure that economic inequality continues to favour the Global North over the Global South.
Paper borders in Global Apartheid
Now we arrive at the core of what currently underpins all border infrastructures, and this is the system surrounding passports and visas. The strength of any person’s passport in relation to their ability to internationally migrate is easily mapped on the Global passport index. Generally speaking, people from Global North countries can travel all over the world relatively easily – if they need a visa, the process is accessible, quick, and often automatic. In most cases, no visa is needed at all – the Global North citizen needs only to book a flight. This is because of the existing visa-waiver agreements between Global North countries that allow freedom of movement for each others’ citizens – like New Zealanders going to the EU, Europeans going to the USA and so on.
In stark contrast, there are almost no visa-free travel or visa waiver programmes for citizens from the Global South going to the Global North. And the visas that do exist are mostly inaccessible and involve long bureaucratic hurdles. They are mostly available to those with money, higher education and a so-called “highly skilled” job. At the same time, the people who decide to seek chances outside of their own country often do so as a result of circumstances created by the Global North’s meddling with the Global South: political destabilisation, the initiation of and backing of wars and conflict, exploitation of local resources and resultant economic disadvantage, are direct consequences of the Global North’s involvement in the Global South.
When people from the Global South decide to (or are forced to) seek chances outside of their own country or region, the international border regime means they have to resort to alternative migration pathways, consisting of dangerous journeys in their attempts to cross and avoid externalised, fortified, and internalised borders. As a result, tens of thousands of people have died on the way to Europe alone and undocumented people within Europe continue to face dire life circumstances. Even for those who arrive in Europe, they might then face physical and institutional segregation in reception centres far away from jobs, healthcare, and the rest of the society. It’s incredibly important to understand that the restrictions on freedom of movement aren’t universal - they are targeted and intersect with colonial-, race-, and class lines. The global migration regime discriminates against Global South citizens and the Global North claims this system is for its own self-protection, and that gating, policing, removing and letting people drown is necessary for its security. The practices of apartheid are state-sanctioned and state warranted forms of structural violence that cause people to die.
It wouldn’t require a radical overhaul to immediately start combating apartheid and saving lives - this could be achieved almost overnight by introducing equally accessible safe migration pathways regardless of nationality. In another, much larger sense, however, it’s clear that the gigantic border infrastructure must be demolished in its entirety to ensure a more equal freedom of movement for all. That’s why we fight domestic policies, parties, and ideologies, which uphold this apartheid.
Further reading
Border Regimes and the New Global Apartheid
The Global Mobility Infrastructure: Reconceptualising the Externalisation of Migration Control
Migration As Decolonization
The Autoimmunity of the EU’s Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders
The Global Mobility Divide: How Visa Policies Have Evolved over Time
Looking for ways to resist global apartheid?
- Boycott industries and businesses that get rich off paying unlivable wages to workers in the Global South, as well as stolen products like blood minerals in phones, coffee, spices, and source them locally or directly instead.
- Damage border fences or help people cross them. No shame in being a smuggler!
- Push the legal ways of entry - marry someone for papers, help someone get a VISA, or distract a border guard! It might not change the system but it’s a form of resistance.
- Robin Hood a bank ;)