Opposing Immigration Is Morally Wrong
Anti-Immigration Is Evil
People who oppose the freedom of individuals movement between countries, or immigration, are morally in the wrong. A basic human right is the ability to leave an area where you are being mistreated. Powerful special interest groups and nations’ rulers have opposed this worldwide because they want to protect special privileges and powers that they have over other human beings. The special interest groups lie to the public at large telling them that if you allow immigration “Immigrants will steal your jobs!” or “Our country will be full of filthy people who don’t speak our language!” or “They will consume our resources!” Such hysterical rantings and ravings are usually made by foaming at the mouth politicians trying to pander to stupidity in order to gain votes. A reasoned, scientific look at the economics and politics show that allowing open borders and free immigration between countries would immensely benefit the entire world.
The True Economics of Immigration
Immigration is essentially the free flow of labor to where it is needed most. People don’t typically emigrate to countries that have less jobs than their own; instead they go to the country with the most need of workers and where those workers are treated the best. Markets and businesses NEED to have an elastic supply of workers in order to successfully function. Think about it on the small scale- you run a small pilot education businesss. You start to get enough customers where you need to expand in order to meet the demand, so you purchase a new airplane (which means there is an available supply of airplanes) and now you need to hire a new pilot to teach people. The larger the labor pool of pilots, the more likely you are too find a good teaching pilot. If the labor pool is smaller, you may have to hire someone who isn’t as qualified- maybe he doesn’t have all the right certifications or has a surly attitude towards customers. Now scale back out to the economy as a whole- when businesses desperately need quality employeees, but can’t find them, the economy ends up moving towards a recession as businesses close and customers start looking elsewhere to have their needs satisfied.
Harvard issued a great paper in the Journal of Economic Literature back in 1994. The paper, “The Economics of Immigration“, condenses many other studies on the economics of immigration from over the years and discusses the pros and cons of immigration including the effect on native employment, integration of immigrants into the economy and how immigrants perform in the host economy. The economic paper on immigration concludes after much research and statistical analysis that there is no evidence that the arrival of immigrants negatively affects the job opportunities of those already in the nation (mostly because the influx of immigrants causes the economy to grow faster and larger than it did before). For instance, the paper shows how unemployment remains unchanged after a large influx of immigrants. No one is taking your job, they are coming in and creating new ones.
So, if immigration offers HUGE benefits to the economies of both the host nations and the world at large, why do so many people oppose it and why are governments so protective of who enters and exits their borders?
The Politics of Immigration: Racist Hatred and Abuse of the Ignorant
Ignorance in immigration harms America
Most people oppose immigration for one of two reasons: racism or ignorance. People who are racist think that immigration will somehow dilute their countries blood lines and destroy the fabric of their country. These are people who generally ignore history and what actually happens with immigration. If you think about it from a God’s-eye perspective, we are all immigrants. Humanity originated with a few people in one place (everyone agrees upon that, whether you are Christian, Atheist, Islamic, etc.). People had children and those children moved to new places. Up until four hundred years ago, the only people in America were the original natives- Native Americans. Then the first wave of European immigrants made their way over and settled down. Unfortunately, evil politicians stirred up anger at every wave of immigration after that. America’s history shows that we have mistreated everyone from the Irish to the African Americans to the Chinese when they emigrated. Of course after a couple of generations, those same people who were once discriminated against became a part of the native populace and in turn started to discriminate against other newcomers. The ridiculousness of this mindset is obvious; you are criticizing other people for doing exactly what you and your glorious ancestors did. The coming of the Mayflower is akin to the coming of Christ in American lore, but when you look at it from the Native Americans perspective, it was just another ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!
So why does anyone oppose immigration?
The reason that smart people oppose immigration is a very sad one- It’s because they see a way to boost their own selfish interests at the expense of everyone else. Who are these people? Politicians.
Sleazy Politicians Oppose Immigration
Politicians are almost universally loathed and despised, even more so than lawyers, because they have rightfully earned a reputation for being lying, flip-flopping scumbags. So what benefits do scuzzy politicians receive from being so opposed to immigration? Power, money, jobs, women, attention and all the other things that that type of person craves.
Politicians jobs rely on having separate countries with their own borders and the prevention of immigration. For instance, if it were easy to emigrate between countries, politicians would have much less room for cheating their countrymen because people could simply go somewhere where the government was less corrupt.
Politicians who are respectable and thoughtful in their policies and plans usually don’t get elected; it’s the slavering-at-the-mouth sleazebag who is willing to lie and play on peoples emotions and fears (”THEY WANT TO STEAL YOUR JOBS!”) that get elected. Unfortunately, regular people are susceptible to these type of emotional appeals and in their fright and rage, they forget to use their logic and reason. Science has shown that economies and people benefit with increased immigration, but when someone threatens you and your job, you get scared and lose your wits. Politicians abuse this ignorance and stupidity in order to retain their power.
The Evil Perpetrated on the World By Immigration Opponents
Berlin Wall = American Border Fence
People who oppose immigration have caused much evil, pain, hunger, sorrow and loss in our world. Consider the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall was set up ostensibly to protect Soviet borders, but in reality it was to keep German citizens penned in and the outside world out. Politicians set up the Berlin Wall so their criminal abuses of the East German people could go unchecked and their totalitarian government could torture and harass citizens without constraint. The politicians in that communist hellhole wanted to retain their power and the only way they could do it was by blocking their people’s natural rights to immigrate elsewhere.
North Korea is another country that will not allow people to immigrate in or out. North Korea’s immigration policies, along with communism and a distinct lack of free markets, has led this country to be one of the poorest countries on earth where no one wants to visit and the criminal leadership is forced to keep its people in the country at gunpoint. Nothing would be better for North Korea than a little civil uprising to throw off the tyrants who have dominated the country for so long and who have made immigration nearly impossible into or out of the country.
America’s policies on foreign immigration into our country over the years have changed back and forth from open and accepting to harsh and isolationist. Unfortunately, the last ten years have seen
Evil Job Thieves or People Like Your Family?
America’s politicians grow greedier and more powerful and take ever more taxes from the working man (the rise of sleazy politicians directly coincides with a rise against immigration rights). For instance, a few days ago, a hardworking and successful Chinese immigrant died after being horribly mistreated by the immigration and Homeland Security departments of the United States. The poor man had terminal cancer that broke his spine and all the jailkeepers would do was give him pain medication. About a week before he died, his jailers told him they would get him medical attention if he signed away his rights to stay in America- essentially torturing the poor fellow into submission. Yes, this is just one case, but unfortunately there is a huge trend across America to treat successful, hard-working immigrants with hate, racism and hostility. C’mon people, immigrants are “stealing your job”, immigrants are working to expand the economy to create jobs for himself, his family, you and your family. So get off your lazy unionized butt and do some real work for a change.
The United States is currently moving to an isolationist mentality full of racism and hatred for people who want to come to our country and contribute. The stupidest idea in the history of stupid ideas recently got passed by our legislature: the government wants to build a giant fence along the Mexican border in order to keep hard-working, good people out. The 2,000 mile border fence, named the “United States-Mexico Barrier”, will cost tens of billions of dollars in direct taxpayer money and will cost the U.S. economy tens of trillions of dollars more because businesses can’t get the workers that they desperately need. Our ridiculous border defense is even more idiotic than the Maginot Line the French built in World War 2 to keep out the Germans and will be circumvented in the same exact way- people will just go around it. This is what happens when the government tries to solve “problems”. At least our government isn’t so racist that it tries to solve problems the Nazi way through extermination… yet. And don’t try to tell me that these people haven’t fought and died for the land of the United States- Have you looked at the racial composition of the military lately? Hispanics make up 12% of the total population and the military is made up of 11.5% hispanics. White people serve the same ratio: 77.5% of the population, 75% of the armed forced. African Americans actually serve in much higher quantities than either one- 11.33% of the population is black, whereas 15% of the military is black. I think that if we allowed open immigration, many of the people who emigrated to the United States would be happy and appreciative to be here and would serve in the military at the same rates as everyone else.
What solution does Joel recommend for solving immigration problems?
Open all of the borders to every country. Countries that resist are generally countries that are criminally abusive to their citizens (the most closed countries are North Korea, China and their ilk). I suggest that these countries should be conquered, then opened up for immigration both in and out. We should set up governments like the United States was initially set up - by using a federalist republic for our government. One small federal government will monitor global affairs and ensure free interstate trade and a fair international court system is in place, and each individual nation-state can run itself as it pleases. If one country enacts a bunch of laws that makes it an unpleasant place to live, only the politicians will lose out because everyone else can just freely move elsewhere. Travel would be much easier and if you wanted to move to Thailand and live and work there for a couple of years you could do it easily. The world economy would benefit in enormous ways because labor would be free to move to wherever it was needed the most, instead of being artificially restrained by evil politicians and their fright tactics.
What do you guys think about all of the facts I have collected on immigration as well as my opinion of what those facts mean and what we should do? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment and debate with me!
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August 17th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I disagree. No modern country operates without strong border control. A significant change in border policy would drastically change the quality of American lives. Given that there would of course be security to attempt to screen out unsavory characters, the sheer influx of people would overwhelm critical infrastructure. The result would be chaos.
This opinion piece is a still-born fetus.
August 17th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
You wouldn’t know a good idea if it slapped you in the face with its enormous schlong.
Just because no modern countries currently operate without strong border control doesn’t mean that it is impossible. I don’t suggest that we instantly open all the borders, but if we phase it in over a period of years, a lot of the chaos and other problems would be ameliorated.
Change can be painful, but the end result of opening borders would free people to travel where and when they like, to wherever they can maximize their personal well-being… which would also end up maximizing global well-being.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Yeah, you completely fail to make a case for “anti-immigration people are racist”.
Heck, you just fail.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Why don’t you want immigrants to come into the country? If they benefit the economy, do work you don’t want to do and serve in the military, why not?
It’s because of blind racism.
Point. Set. Match.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I agree with the majority of what you have to say but conquering other countries and imposing our ideas of whats right and wrong is nothing short of imperialism
August 28th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Ace, What is so bad about imperialism? With imperialism, you have much less chance of war between regions, because everyone is united under the same flag. Revolutions go up, but full-scale wars between countries go down.