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One is a recognized legal concept. The other is trendy bullshit.
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A purely theoretical one, though. Just because it has a recognized meaning doesnât imply any government actually takes it seriously as an ideal. Itâs Doublespeak. For example, several UN member states restrict their citizens from leaving the country, or limit their freedom of movement within the country.
âFreedom of Movementâ = âWe are going to watch everything you do and stop you doing it on a whimâ.
And realistically, the concept itself is flawed (most ârightsâ are). Complete Freedom of Movement isnât possible or desirable, as the video above illustrates.
I think âFreedom of Movementâ is not a bad topic after all.
Letâs keep it and see where everyone goes with it. There is freedom of moving the discussion in different directions after all⌠
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Of course, but I think the title is misleading and the OP is mistaken. The only bloc offering free movement of people between sovereign states is the European Union by core members.
Otherwise if you have visa-free privileges, itâs not necessarily a right to enter and can be denied at any time. Just look at anyone who admits to smoking pot in Canada when entering the United States.
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I guess another relevant phrase there is âopen bordersâ:
According to wikipedia there, the phenomenon on non open borders only become common after WW1
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Perhaps my title is misleading, or I just started this thread out of a little bit of frustration after I told one of my co-workers that I booked my airfare to Thailand for the weekend, and then found out that I cannot go because of the COVID-19 situation. But even if the COVID-19 pandemic was not happening I would still go to Thailand, but I would go quietly. The school does not want anyone going out of Taiwan on a long weekend but they donât realize that flights to Japan, Cambodia, or Korea donât take very long. If I have to cancel my trip to Thailand at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then I will. I donât want a 14-day quarantine imposed on me.
But just remember this: there have been 100,000 cases of Coronavirus around the world. the fatality rate is 3%, and 55% of these patients have been cured. So I donât see the reason for all this hype over COVID-19 when people donât realize that car accidents have killed way hell of a lot more people than COVID-19.
As for the freedom of movement, yes I got freedom of movement but as I said, freedom has its limits. I am here in Taiwan as a privilege that I am grateful for, and I have a purpose to be here. With my passport I can still travel to many countries around the world, but there are some countries where I donât want to go, places where I am not allowed to go, and places where I can go but not unless I have a visa. So I am not going to let this Coronavirus thing get to me. If I want to go to Thailand, I can try to go there this August, although the weather will not be so good.
So if I have to stay in Taiwan for the long weekend I will. Itâs not every long weekend I have to leave Taiwan, but if I can spend a little bit of time in a neighboring Asian country on a long weekend, I might as well take that chance. On holidays I donât go to work, therefore I donât have to be in town, or in Taiwan during a holiday.
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You really want to go down that road again, Comrade Finsky? 
How about Freedom of Movement vs. Coronavirus?
Hmmmmm, Perhaps freedom of movement and COVID-19.
This is where youâre mistaken.
You only have the freedom to do so if the border guard in question is under no circumstances to deny you. If youâre not Thai, nor Taiwanese, The Thai officer dealing with your papers can and are allowed to deny you entry for any reason.
Subsequently, the Taiwanese officer can deny your application to re-enter Taiwan. Is this situation likely? No. But just because the governments offer visa-free privileges doesnât mean you have freedom of movement, they just consider nationals of your country lower-risk and are more likely to grant you entry without the vetting that normally comes with a visa application. They can also kick you out and deport you as well. You only have freedom of movement in and out of your country, your freedom ends where the other country begins in the way my freedom to punch someone else in the nose ends where their nose begins.
You only have freedom of movement between sovereign states when:
Your nationality matches the country you are trying to enter
or
Your country has made agreements with the country you are entering to allow your nationality unimpeded access
or
You are a multiple citizen and are travelling between your own countries.
Youâre right. Car crashes kill more people every day than Coronavirus. Hereâs the kicker. Car crashes are
- The devil we know
- Hardly random as controlled by the actions of many humans.
- Accounted for when taking into consideration economic losses due to premature death and injury. We, individually and collectively know how to cope and deal with this.
SARS Coronavirus II is a completely new virus that was pretty much invented three months ago. It originates in a country quite infamous for prioritising its own leadership over anything else at any cost. We quite literally have had to send our health authorities to deal with this with 0 knowledge on this new virus and hope for the best and to make sure we get as many tools as necessary to at the very least protect the health of citizens. This is a virus that is transmissible when the carrier is symptom free, which makes it 10x harder to detect and control. We donât know if the numbers provided by China are accurate or correct because like everything else in China, itâs likely a lie while they tell the world to thank them for dealing with the Coronavirus mess they STARTED! This is like pushing someone down and then asking for thanks when you help them up.
Weâre dealing with beyond microscopic particles that we donât even know or agree if they are alive or dead that indiscriminately kill people. If you donât drive, you donât need to worry about car crashes.
Itâs a lot harder to live life without interacting with another person.
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Unless heâs trying to go home. Itâs not freedom of movement. Freedom of movement is a right, and unless heâs Taiwanese or Thai, heâs not going to have freedom.
Iâm literally stuck in a situation where my country is travel-banned to Taiwan. If I leave, I ainât comin back.
Itâs the same thing with the Philippine debacle. They travel-banned Taiwanese. Unfortunately, thatâs their right. Is it right for them? No. The facts on the ground donât back up such a ban. Is it their right? Yes.
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so where oh where can our hero go to get off the rock for a vacay?
and still be able to return without the 14 day self sequestering
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Why not Vietnam? Itâs not travel banned. Coronavirus infections are low. They dont really like China right now either.
I dunno ⌠I think things are changing way too fast, even if Vietnam looks good now. If youâve got a ticket already, sure, maybe go with it, but if youâre buying a ticket? Only do that if you know youâll be totally fine with two weeks of home quarantine when you get back. Some people have jobs where thatâs fine, others donât.
I can work from home but being stuck in my small apartment for two weeks would be a serious PITA !
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If you go back to Italy you could be restricted in movement as well I guess, this is definitely a pandemic !
Ironically you can still freely visit Ireland even though most of our cases have been imported from Italy !
And 3,500 have died. If 2,000,000 were infected than 70,000 would die, 1,930,000 would get better.
Four out of five will not require hospitalization they say
But the ones that do perhaps ten pct wonât make it
Some say all of the world could get infected
And if two pct donât make it thatâs makes some 140 million people
Letâs hope it will all fizzle our way before anything near that magnitude
That has never crossed my mind.
I have never been to Vietnam and all 16 people
who had COVID-19 there have been cured.