The author writes:
This just in: Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration, has made the New York Times Bestseller List! The one line summary – “An economics professor argues that opening all borders could bolster the global economy” – is an bizarre understatement. Far better to say, “An economics professors argues that or better yet “An economics professor argues that immigration restrictions are an economic and moral disaster.”And you can get your local copy here. Or here.
Still, I’ll take what I can get!
5 comments:
“The first consideration in immigration is the welfare of the receiving nation. In a new government based on principles unfamiliar to the rest of the world and resting on the sentiments of the people themselves, the influx of a large number of new immigrants unaccustomed to the government of a free society could be detrimental to that society. Immigration, therefore, must be approached carefully and cautiously … "[Is] rapid population [growth] by as great importations of foreigners as possible... founded in good policy?... They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their number, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass...” ~Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia”, 1785
Nice one, Terry. Belief in open borders regardless of the context is at worst thoroughly evil, at best it is wholly naive.
Open borders is a good thing that can add value to people’s lives, but it is a value to be achieved between mutually respecting cultures, not a carte Blanche free-for-all that opens floodgates to the barbarians.
Richard, I quoted Jefferson because I agree with him that there needs to be care and caution when considering an open border policy. We are already at the "heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass" stage though. The historical answer to the quagmire has been for a free people to expatriate to some new frontier. The problem today is that there are no new frontiers: the states of the world claim everything as their domain and under their control. That makes it a new problem that is going to require a new solution.
I agree. Europe is rapidly heading towards a precipice. They need to come to their senses very soon (the only solution) or they will descend into war.
Post a Comment