Close borders and feudalism
Joseph Carens, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, argues that this social order—of relatively closed borders, where citizenship is an inherited privilege—has much in common with the feudalism of the Middle Ages. Being born a citizen of a rich, developed country like Canada is analogous to being a child of the nobility: regardless of your exact rank or wealth, you are likely to have a life of greater prospects and opportunity than if you were a peasant. And like feudalism, this seems like an entirely reasonable system for those to the manor born, but there is no argument that you can make to a serf in the field that justifies their lot in life.