Is there any country in the world that allows unrestricted immigration?

[BushOut06]

I know that many countries in Europe have open borders, but even then I wouldn't be able to just pick up and move over there, with no passport, no documentation, and expect to get a job, receive benefits, etc. I think this is the one thing that many people are missing in the immigration debate. Every single country in the world (at least as far as I know) has some form if immigration control, and many are quite strict about who they let in.

[MS Liberal]

1. You are correct.

I was stationed in Germany when I was in the Army. I often visited other countries and needed my id card or passport.

[Bobbieo]

2. I'll take a wild guess and say Haiti

[BushOut06]

6. Somehow, I don't think even Haiti would work

If you were caught in Haiti without any documentation, I don't think it would be a very pleasant experience.

[Inland]

3. Open borders within the European Union.

It's just a question of definition of "border", because in some senses it's a single federal state.

[PsN2Wind]

4. Yes, Mexico

as long as it's outbound.

[gordontron]

11. that would be emigration not immigration nt

[PsN2Wind]

15. Yeah, I know

but that didn't fit the OP. The word might be incorrect but the point is correct. Mexico wants and expects us to act as a safety valve by taking their excess labor.

[IsItJustMe]

16. From my understanding, you can't even buy land in Mexico if you are not a

Mexican citizen.

[TahitiNut]

5. "Your papers, bitte."

National ID cards are eschewed in the US. It's a continuing tug-of-war - information is power.

[LittleClarkie]

7. I thought that I'd read that Argentina was at the least very liberal

in their immigration practices. Maybe that was just around the time of WWII though. I'd read that many Jews headed there before the war because they were fairly open, and that many Nazis headed there after the war for the same reason.

I wonder if that's correct though, because it doesn't sound right somehow.

[Marie26]

8. Well, the USA, until about 1920. nt

[entanglement]

9. Immigration was "European only" back then

n/t

[BushOut06]

10. I thought even that immigration was controlled, wasn't it?

That was back before such things as drivers licenses and social security numbers, so I'm not quite sure how they kept track of who was a citizen and who wasn't. But didn't most European immigrants come through Ellis Island and other controlled entry points, where they could be documented? Of course, for Europeans, it wasn't quite a simple matter of crossing the border, for them making the trip over was much more difficult.

In fact, isn't that where the derogatory term "WOP" (Without Papers) came from?

[Marie26]

14. Don't think they did.

They just didn't keep track. Half the time, they didn't even get people's names right. My grandfather, for example, came over as a small boy w/o a birth certificate or identification. The immigration official put down a garbled version of the Hungarian name & let them through. He didn't actually get an official birth certificate until he was in his 70's. They didn't have SSN back then like they do now, so I'm not sure how they'd identify all these people. I think immigrants were screened to see if they were crazy, sick or an anarchist & passed through to become an American citizen. Much easier than the complex immigration regulations today.

[Marie26]

12. That's mostly true.

Congress passed bills in 1800's to prohibit Chinese workers & require an English test, but until the 1924 Immigration Bill, I don't think there was anything to specifically prevent non-Europeans from coming over. So it was very close to an "open borders" policy - people could come from all over the world w/o quota or limit. (Let me know if I'm wrong about that, though).

[BigYawn]

13. USA ???

[harpo]

18. yep

[IsItJustMe]

17. The truth of the matter is that you could probably immigrate to any

country in the world if you had the money.

[YouthInAsia]

19. i got thrown outta Canada once.

I had an unpaid underage drinking ticket from when I was 16 and 12 years later the oulled me over at the border one day, hauled me into customs, demanded the money be paid then and their (plus 12 years of penalties) and deported me when I refused. Bastards.