“Someone who is free need not have permission from the government to buy and sell from any consenting person in the world, and he need not have permission from government to move to another region in the world.” – The Case for Free Trade and Open Immigration
With immigrants flooding into the United States in record numbers, comes renewed concerns that illegals are ruining our country—a far cry, however, from our experience of days long past. While isolationists demand walls and barriers to seal the border, there is little attention given to how bad policies implemented over the past century have affected not only immigration, but trade, and how one fundamentally affects the other.
America was built by immigrants who left their homelands and resettled in America, and up until the 21st century, was open for migration with little to no restrictions. In fact, from 1840 to 1940, America took in 40 million immigrants with little fear that they might be arriving with ill intent. With no entitlement programs to lure them in, immigrants came with little more than the clothes on their backs, and dreams of prosperity. With a mostly hands-off approach to the economy, the government let the unfettered markets react to the voluntary choices of citizens, including immigrants.
In Richard Ebeling and Jacob Hornberger’s edited book, “The Case for Free Trade and Open Immigration”, its authors, in a series of essays, make a natural rights case for the free movement of goods and people across borders, whether that movement is between states or nations. While the free movement of goods creates an economic benefit for both nations and advances social cooperation, the free movement of people creates gains by simply moving workers from regions of low productivity to high and allowing them the same God-given rights to pursue their own happiness.
Natural rights are privileges received from either God or nature that cannot be terminated or altered by the government or the people. These include a right to your life and the protection thereof, the right to liberty to pursue your own path, and the right to property, including your own labor, and the ownership that results. The Constitution followed with an additional top ten in the Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson himself, showed his support for the free movement of people when he wrote: “And in order to preserve to the citizens of this commonwealth, that natural right, which all men have of relinquishing the country, in which birth or other accident may have thrown them, and, seeking subsistence and happiness wheresoever they may be able, or may hope to find them”.
The defense of free immigration starts with free trade, the flow of goods and services without interference from the government, i.e. tariffs, embargoes, quotas, etc. The specialization and division of labor that results grow the economy, not only on a national level but internationally, as well. For when goods cross borders, armies won’t, or so says the Golden Arches theory that suggests that economically stable nations are less likely to want to enter into war when trade not only creates wealth but an incentive to get along. And trade works best when governments don’t interfere, allowing individuals to buy and sell on their own initiative. When governments intervene through trade agreements, as seen in GATT, NAFTA, FTA, etc., trade is made for the benefit of special interests, leaving citizens of both countries worse off.
Yet, the world is not only a global marketplace for goods and services but also for labor. Ironically, the damage done by trade restrictions on countries has added to the need for immigrants to leave their economically depressed countries and travel to richer nations. Yet rather than respond with free trade, we cling to our old and mistaken ideas regarding nationalism, propping up domestic markets at the expense of citizens. Embracing the benefits of unfettered trade worldwide would incentivize more people to stay in their nations and improve their own economies.
Nevertheless, accusations against immigrants to America abound from the stealing of jobs, the lowering of wages, and burdens on the welfare system. Since there is not a finite number of jobs in an economy, new citizens only open more markets for products and services, as they themselves become consumers. While they may drive out higher wages for some, the misnomer of unemployment only occurs when wages are not allowed to adjust to new conditions or when wages are artificially increased by either unions or government intervention. Foreign-born workers have higher participation levels in the labor market than natives. Allowing immigrants to work, only increases the size of the economic pie, as has been the case for centuries.
Economist Milton Friedman once claimed that you can have a closed border with government welfare, or you can have an open border with a constitutional government, but you can’t have both. The problem with unconstitutional government cannot be laid at the feet of immigrants, it is a task for the natives to resolve and no one else. When immigration was open, there was no welfare, income tax, or entitlements. The purpose of a republican government is to protect natural rights. Not only does free trade and open immigration go hand in glove with natural rights, but it also gave America the highest standard of living, all while immigrants flocked to our shores.
President Biden may have foolishly flung the doors open to increase his voter base, but immigrants flooding into America is not the cause, but the consequence of decades of bad policies from both parties. Only by returning to the government of our Founders, will we ever find the road back to a system where goods and people can cross borders at will.
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