Immigration Is Not The Problem

Immigration is a hot topic. It is also a complicated one, at least as framed in today’s political context.

It need not be. Human beings are what Julian Simon termed the “ultimate resource.” The more of them, the better so long as space allows. At some point diseconomies of scale occur due to overcrowding. The US is nowhere near that point and likely never will be.

All productive newcomers should be welcomed into our society. I am in favor of immigration, even open borders. That doesn;t mean that I am in favor of what comes out of Congress regarding immigration “reform.”

There are two critical reasons why open borders cannot be open:

1. Terrorism
2. Welfare

Terrorism

Terrorism is a concern, although it is unlikely to be as big a threat as our government maintains. Tyrants need “enemies” and threats as a means of justifying the expansion of control and power. Enemies are always used for such purposes. If there are not enough enemies then government will invent them. Threats, real, imagined or manufactured, pave the way to loss of liberty.

Ironically, justifying extreme measures because of enemies, ultimately is the basis for destroying a society. The destruction comes in the form of sovereign bankruptcy caused by fighting wars that cannot be funded. Sometimes people become so repressed from the tyranny imposed on them that they rebel and revolt before the sovereign goes bankrupt.

The extent that terrorism presents a real threat is beyond my knowledge. Suffice to say that all governments desiring to become more powerful have need for an enemy, real or invented.

Political Considerations

Without terrorism, higher immigration would still be a political problem. Interests on either side of issues are parochial and self-serving. An example is the position of labor unions. They are against immigration because they believe (correctly) that it will have an adverse impact on their wages.

Organized labor’s position is that cheap labor will flow to these shores and depress wage rates. That is true, however stopping immigration does not stop the event they fear. Labor arbitrage is inevitable. Blocking the adjustment with immigration laws does not prevent the downward adjustment to US wages. If you block lower-priced labor from coming here, capital and jobs will go to the lower-priced labor.

That is exactly what has happened in the US. Instead of cheaper labor coming here to our factories, the factories went there. The effects on wages will ultimately be the same, however the US tax, manufacturing and employment opportunities have been seriously harmed by such a policy. Foreign countries have been the beneficiaries of our shoot-ourselves-in-the-foot policies.

continue article at Economic Noise:

http://www.economicnoise.com/2013/08/19/immigration-is-not-the-problem/