E.U. Migration: Hanseatic League to Charter Cities 

by Gregory Rehmke · Published July 30, 2020 · Updated August 1, 2020

Hong Kong property tycoon pitches new city idea to Ireland (The Guardian, July 28, 2020):

China’s recent imposition of national security laws on the island has prompted many Hongkongers to consider leaving. The British government has promised to provide assistance and relocation.

In a Charter Cities Institute podcast Ko compared any such migration to those who sailed on the Mayflower to America in 1602. “We are in pursuit of freedom and democracy, which is a little bit similar to the pilgrims and the puritans who left Europe in pursuit of religious freedom.”

Hong Kong, itself a charter city, was for decades a refugee city as well, as millions fled for their lives from the brutal dictatorship and disastrous economic policies of Communist China. See The Refugee Camp with Millions of Impoverished Refugees (Economic Thinking), with link to video segment, Johan Norberg- Free or Equal – Free to Choose 30 years later 2/5

History and economics should share center state for European Union immigration reform. European and E.U. immigration policies since World War II mostly responded to the disasters of war and realities of displaced and impoverished peoples. Looking back further, before the World Wars I and II, migration policies and realities were very different.

Before WWI, there was no immigration policy, for there were no restrictions on migration. Travel was costly, so most people lived near where they were born. Merchants traveled for trade and soldiers traveled for wars. Christians traveled for pilgrimages and earlier, Christian soldiers for the Crusades.

The links below look back to an earlier age for reforms ideas to guide and expand the E.U.’s future.

Consider what’s been called first European Union, the Hanseatic League of mostly Baltic cities that flourished centuries ago, but are relevant for the E.U. today. The BBC link below explains why.

Signs of the Hanseatic League survive into the modern world (Air Hansa–Lufthansa–for example) Also, a league of former Hanseatic League cities advocates for fiscal austerity for the European Union.

Below too are recent articles on modern Hansa trading cities: charter cities. And Refugee Cities. Both offer alternatives for the E.U.’s ongoing refugee crises.

Consider today’s successful charter cities: Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia, and Monaco, Andorra, and others still thriving in Europe with tourism, low taxes, and sound property rights institutions.
• Could (and should) the E.U sponsor refugee camps or enclaves following the Uganda freedom model (below). Refugee camps can create prosperity.

E.U. Hanseatic League to Charter Cities

• Rethinking Cities as Startups, Paul Romer (video)

• Why the world needs charter cities (TED video)

• A Charter Cities Reading List Charter Cities Institute

• Polemics: Charter Cities – A Solution for Europe?

• Mark Lutter of Charter Cities Institute, in City Journal
Give Charter Cities a Second Look

• Charter City Institute Charter City course

• BBC: Hanseatic League: The first European Union?

• The Atlantic, Hanseatic League for ending poverty: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty

• Little Europe: Five Micro-Countries

• The Economist video: The rise of the refugee startup

• Oxford: Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions and Refugee Economies in Uganda