The coming border crackdown

By Robert Guest, Deputy editor, The Economist

Voters everywhere are fed up. In all the big countries that held elections in 2024, the incumbent party lost seats. Complaints varied, but two stand out. One was high prices (partly a consequence of pandemic-era largesse). The other was migration, which surged after covid-19 border controls were eased. A sense that governments had lost control in both areas spurred voters to punish them in America, Britain and France in 2024, and hastened the collapse of Germany’s ruling coalition. In 2025 some leaders will try to reduce economic and cultural turbulence for citizens by shutting out foreigners. The most dramatic experiment will be in the United States. How it pans out will have global consequences.