The case for open borders is open to challenge but the economic benefits are large and real
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One of the underlying principles of human freedom should be the right to seek a new life in another geographic location, another place, another community — another country. Many have argued in favour of the freedom of immigration that existed in Canada and elsewhere a century ago. But in the 1920s, in the wake of the First World War, governments converged under the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) around the idea that immigration must be controlled via passport systems that had previously been imposed by authoritarian monarchs seeking to limit the freedom of their subjects.
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Today, 25 years into the 21st century, the spread of authoritarian limits on what should be a fundamental human right seems to be accelerating. Fuelled by twisted racial, economic, cultural and political ideas, governments and politicians are constantly planning new rules to control and limit rising immigration and the movement of refugees.
Daily developments range from the economically mundane Canadian government plans to cap temporary resident permits to the politically extreme declarations of Donald Trump. The U.S. Republican presidential candidate has promised “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” through the forced removal of up to three million “illegal” immigrants who have crossed the United States-Mexico border in recent years. Using the language of a threatened demagogue, Trump said immigrants are an “invasion” that is creating an “open wound” that is “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Along with claims that excess immigration needs to be controlled for economic and cultural reasons — jobs, inflation, global competition — another anti-immigrant campaign emerged this week in the wake of the murderous rampage by four Islamic terrorists at a Moscow concert venue. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (and potential Trump vice-president) said illegal immigration could become the source of a similar mass shooting in the U.S. “What’s important for us … We’ve had nine million people come across our border illegally, and it only took four” to commit the atrocities in Moscow. There could easily be four terrorists among the millions, added Rubio in TV interviews.
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Rubio thereby branded millions of illegal U.S. immigrants — people whose only crime was to cross the Mexican border “illegally” in search of a better life in America — as potential terrorists. How do you make America great again by turning against the nation’s great original open-immigration history?
Canadian immigration policy is a long way from such extremes, but it does contain stretches of economic logic with claims that various Canadian economic and political troubles are the result of immigrant policies that need to be tightened. Last week, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced that Ottawa will cap the number of temporary residents entering Canada. The alleged reason is to address the national housing gap and help curb inflation.
The logbook of expert advice favouring immigration controls to ease economic trouble is long, with entries from bank economists, think tanks and others — all of which give ministers such as Miller a rationale for another “strategic” state intervention. “We need to be more strategic in how we assess demand and the international students and temporary foreign workers that we are welcoming,” he said.
The economic and political case for greater government control over immigration has been challenged by many economists who present evidence on the major and sustainable benefits of immigration. Recent economic reports from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and others say immigration is boosting the U.S. economy.
So why not open the borders even more? George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan, one of the contributors to The Economics of Immigration, outlines a “radical case” for open borders on a global scale. In an open borders world, “you don’t need permission to move from Lahore to London or Montreal to Mumbai any more than you need permission to move from Oklahoma to California,” or, we might add, from Quebec to Alberta. Canadian immigration history documented by Michael Trebilcock and a colleague in their monumental work The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy tells a story that substantially supports the open borders theory.
U.S. economist John Kennan in a 2013 paper titled Open Borders writes that while liberal immigration policies are politically unpopular, one reason is that the beneficiaries of these policies are not allowed to vote. More importantly, “the enormous benefits associated with open borders have not received much attention in the economics literature. Economists are generally enthusiastic about free trade. But if free movement of goods is important, then surely free movement of people is even more important.”
Kennan’s modelling led to the conclusion that open borders are associated with major gains in economic activity and welfare for immigrant workers with “no implied reduction in real wages.” In another study in 2017, Kennan assessed the movement of millions of people following the opening of immigration borders within the European Union. Kennan’s main conclusion was that “the real wage effects are small, and the gains from open borders are large.”
The economic case for open borders is open to challenge, but a political re-think is needed, starting with the principle that immigration should be a basic human right.
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Terence Corcoran: Immigration is all about freedom
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27.03.2024
The case for open borders is open to challenge but the economic benefits are large and real
You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.
One of the underlying principles of human freedom should be the right to seek a new life in another geographic location, another place, another community — another country. Many have argued in favour of the freedom of immigration that existed in Canada and elsewhere a century ago. But in the 1920s, in the wake of the First World War, governments converged under the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) around the idea that immigration must be controlled via passport systems that had previously been imposed by authoritarian monarchs seeking to limit the freedom of their subjects.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Today, 25 years into the 21st century, the spread of authoritarian limits on what should be a fundamental human right seems to be accelerating. Fuelled by twisted racial, economic, cultural and political ideas, governments and politicians are constantly planning new rules to control and limit rising immigration and the movement of refugees.
Daily developments range from the economically mundane Canadian government plans to cap temporary resident permits to the politically extreme declarations of Donald Trump. The U.S. Republican presidential candidate has promised “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history”........
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