What is Fair?

Read an article in this week's Next Magazine, on illegal immigrant mothers from Mainland China giving birth in Hong Kong's hospital, hoping to give the child the Hong Kong citizenship, as well as the privileges and the resources granted to citizens. The article criticized this and thought it's unfair for the Hong Kong tax payers to pay for the hospital services and fees, as well as the future education, public housing, and everything else that comes with the citizenship granted to the child. Personally I am also very much against the illegal immigrants, and I definitely oppose the idea of giving any kind of privilege to the illegal immigrants. A while ago there were discussions in the US regarding giving citizenships to certain illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico, and I think that's unfair to those of us who tried to get the citizenship through legal means.

But what is fair? We are born unequally. Those mothers in Mexico and China want to give their children the best they can afford, and in some case when the new born is known to be handicapped, being born in a more developed region like US and HK is probably the only chance for the survival of the child. I think if someone is to make a movie, which illustrates the living conditions at the poor regions, the mother dreaming of a brighter future for the children, what she has gone through to get across the border into the country in order to finally give birth to the child, most of the audience will be moved and support the mother. It's also very hard to stop this issue altogether. The developed countries are obliged to provide medical care for anyone, whether or not they get into the country legally.

Probably the ultimate solution to this is when the living condition and welfare is the same everywhere in the world, thus there are no incentive to be the citizen of any particular country. Though ideal, I believe this is achievable given that the world is flattening.