# Star Trek, do they ever address immigration? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251 "2012-01-12T03:49:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/21 "2012-01-12T23:43:08Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > In the Star Trek episode “By Any Other Name”, the resolution is that the Kelvans are invited to immigrate from the Andromeda galaxy to planets in our galaxy, even though their real forms are scary 50 tentacled monsters. So yeah, I’d say the Federation is pretty tolerant of immigration. Yeah considering the Kelvans don’t colonize, they conquer and rule! ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/22 "2012-01-13T07:44:11Z")
Thanks for the info everyone, what got me wondering is on TNG characters will explicitly say what a utopia…earth is…not the federation as a whole but earth. And with how easy it is to join the federation seemingly I can imagine it takes a couple decades for living standards to rise on member worlds. So say a relatively poor and war ravaged planet like Bajor joins, what stops an immediate wave of Bajorans selling everything they own for a ride to nicer more utopian planets of the federation? Hell it could be millions they would have to absorb fairly fast. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/23 "2012-01-13T11:44:01Z")
> [@grude](#): > > So say a relatively poor and war ravaged planet like Bajor joins, what stops an immediate wave of Bajorans selling everything they own for a ride to nicer more utopian planets of the federation? Hell it could be millions they would have to absorb fairly fast. “Spirituality”. Seriously, some ethereal quality (“[Our planet] defines who we are as a people.”) has been trotted out several times to explain why people on a doomed and/or inhospitable planet don’t just get the heck outta there. One of the few occasions where an alien gladly (indeed, eagerly) traded up by abandoning her homeworld was in TNG’s “First Contact” (the fourth-season episode, not the film) which is one of my personal favourites. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/24 "2012-01-13T16:19:02Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I have to assume that citizens of the Federation are free to live on whatever Federation planet they want… With the exception of Talos IV. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/25 "2012-01-13T16:56:55Z")
There was a TNG episode where this Irish colony had to resettle. I remember it primarily because their campfires set off the fire control in the Enterprises cargo bay. There was this very cute Irish girl that Riker flirted with. Can’t recall the episode name. At least in this case a entire colony had left earth and settled elsewhere. TOS had the doomed colony that the Federation thought was dead. Instead they had been sprayed by happy plants. This is the one where Spock gets happy and hangs from the trees limbs. Kirk has to fight him to reverse the plants effects. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/26 "2012-01-13T17:56:58Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There was a TNG episode where this Irish colony had to resettle. I remember it primarily because their campfires set off the fire control in the Enterprises cargo bay. There was this very cute Irish girl that Riker flirted with. He didn’t just flirt with her. He “washed her feet.” (shudder) That was one of those “an entire planet of X” episodes. An entire planet of 19th century Irish people! I remember one episode in which Dr. Crusher was seduced by a ghost on an entire planet of 18th century Scottish people. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/27 "2012-01-13T17:59:37Z")
On the few occasions when we see Earth, it looks like the cities are small and compact, with vast tracts of undeveloped land surrounding them. This suggests that Earth, at least, has very strict immigration controls designed to keep it’s population in check. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251/28 "2012-01-13T18:02:31Z")
I seem to recall hearing that earth has quite a large population, but I’m not sure. It would make sense to me that most people live in densely populated cities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-they-ever-address-immigration/609251.md?page=1)