[Shaanie]

Or you know, D) they'd rather keep their own quality of life than significantly reduce it. They wouldn't be able to keep their mostly crime-free, large safety net high trust society with open borders, it's just not possible. There's already significant struggles in some European countries due to refugee immigration, and that's with fairly strict borders. It's a bit absurd that you're phrasing it as if the only sacrifice would be seeing poor people tbh.

But yes, the core reason is obviously selfish, but also understandable.