New CFR Book Examines the Effects of COVID Border Closures

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, “governments across the world responded with a bewildering array of different policies to deal with what was appropriately called a ‘novel’ virus,” says a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) book. “But amid all this variation, there was one constant—nearly every country in the world shut its borders.”   

In their new book, When the World Closed Its Doors: The COVID-19 Tragedy and the Future of Borders, Edward Alden and Laurie Trautman examine “the lessons learned from this historic experiment in closing borders, and the implications for the future of borders and those whose lives straddle them.” They argue that “the temptation to do so in future crises—from pandemics to terrorist attacks to flows of desperate asylum seekers—will be irresistible.” 

“When the World Closed Its Doors is a valuable examination of the impacts of COVID border closures,” said CFR President Michael Froman. “Ted and Laurie’s research amplifies the voices of affected communities and uncovers the legacy that those border closures left. It’s also a cautionary tale for the next crisis.” 

Alden, a senior fellow at CFR specializing in immigration policy, and Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, assert that COVID “taught governments—in a way that had been far from certain beforehand—that borders could be closed or heavily restricted for extended periods with strong public support.”  

While border measures were helpful in reducing COVID spread in some countries, especially when coupled with other vigorous public health measures, they came with enormous consequences, separating families and in some cases even blocking citizens from returning home. The authors warn that they “illustrate a disturbing tendency by governments—in liberal democratic societies with advanced border management regimes—to use borders to curtail individual rights and freedoms.”  

Through a series of case studies, Alden and Trautman explore how these broadly supported border closures had significant personal and economic consequences across the world.  

Charlotte Bellis, a New Zealand citizen, could not win government permission to return despite being pregnant and trapped in Afghanistan. Two-year-old Saanvi Naveen was barred for over a year from returning to her Australian parents after visiting grandparents in India. Container ship workers moving goods were trapped at sea for months, blocked from leaving their ships. And when the U.S.-Canada border closed, the U.S. west coast town of Point Roberts, which can only be accessed through Canada, was cut off from the country. Point Roberts lost 80 percent of its economic activity by the time restrictions were eased a year after closures were implemented.

“Point Roberts, while an outlier, exemplifies the struggle of many people living in communities that could only exist because of a functioning border,” write Alden and Trautman, who also tell stories of affected communities from towns on the borders between the United States and Mexico, Norway and Sweden, and China and Myanmar—all of which were harmed by border policies.

The harm people incurred from border policies led them to form grassroot initiatives to fight for change. Alden and Trautman stress that “these efforts were unprecedented: citizens of countries who had largely enjoyed free travel organizing to fight for their right to live across borders, and in some cases for their right to return home.” These groups, they emphasize, show that “borders are not just a barrier to those wishing to emigrate to foreign countries, but an obstacle to anyone trying to live a life outside national boundaries.”

Alden and Trautman ultimately assert: “Governments certainly can and will close borders again during future crises, but they now face a far more engaged, determined, and passionate community that will not stay quiet.”

Read more about When the World Closed Its Doors: The COVID-19 Tragedy and the Future of Borders and order your copy at https://www.cfr.org/book/when-world-closed-its-doors. 

To request an interview with the authors, please contact CFR Communications at [email protected].