David Blunkett Quotes

Singapore is an international city, and it would be a grave mistake to close our doors.

The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell.

The global community has become irreversibly interdependent, with the constant movement of people, ideas, goods and resources.

Britain is characterized not just by its independence but, above all, by its openness.

One of the greatest gifts that our founders bestowed upon us is open borders … the founders gave us one of the largest free trade zones that man has ever seen.

We are surrounded by people with accents because America is a nation of immigrants. Beyond that, the people who made your iPhone and the shirt on your back are probably Asians, and we're really not that disconnected from each other; we have very intimate relationships with the world, whether or not we realize it.

Creating a structure for mutual prosperity requires lowering regional and transnational barriers to facilitate the flow of goods and promote people-to-people interactions.

It is my great good luck the words I use are English words, which means I live in a very old nation of open borders; a rich, deep, multi-layered, promiscuous universe, infused with Latin, German, French, Greek, Arabic and countless other tongues.

Americans want to be exposed to the opportunities that a changing world can offer.

Today in the era of globalization there is no such issue as borders between states of the same nation.

We're a migrant nation made up of people who've been torn out of other worlds, and you'd think we would have some compassion.

The world, whether we like it or not, will become more and more borderless.

Ironically, xenophobic nationalists are utilizing the benefits of globalization.

So many people are of mixed heritage; everyone is from somewhere else.

People tend to migrate from the third world to the metropolises of the very countries that once dominated them. Algerians to Paris; Puerto Ricans to New York; Pakistanis to London.

The United States, of course, is determined to diversify Europe to such an extent that it becomes a meaningless entity.

I have to confess I do have a slight preference. I do think, naturally, that people from India and Australia are in some ways more likely to speak English, understand common law, and have a connection with this country than some people that come perhaps from countries that haven't fully recovered from being behind the Iron Curtain.

We travel often to Asia, Africa, Europe, where they were born.

Massachusetts is a global community.

I think of the world as geographical regions, and it excites me to think about the opportunity that Europe can have if we consider it to be the 500-million-people region that it is.

My mother is a German who was brought up in the U.K. So, there is so much cross-cultural exposure I had as a child. But Mumbai is my city.

As a company, we believe in free and open borders. We feel this best facilitates the exchange of cultural values and ideas.

Our diaspora has an important role in building bridges between India and the world.

I think that the world is going to remain a very interconnected place. I don't think there's any getting away from that. The Internet has brought us closer together. I think cross-border trade is going to continue to grow substantially. I think there may be certain trade agreements that can be renegotiated, one way or another.

I love crossing borders.