Freedom of Movement (FoM) has worked out pretty well for the EU, especially well before the enlargement. The tensions came with the inclusion of the old “eastern bloc” countries where there was a rather large disparity between them and the richer west. I’m generally in favour of FoM, but I also recognise that with a big difference in standards there will be some issues.

So yes, FoM works, but there has to be rules attached. The UK didn’t apply most of the rules they could have, which eventually led to a perception that FoM is bad, and then Brexit.

Where are these open borders you speak of?

In the EU. You’re free to move to any member country to live and work there.

Then we had brexit, and as huge part of that was the “freedom of movement” in the EU. The British didn’t like “Polish plumbers” coming to the UK.