Immigration
May 11th 2011, 13:57 by R.A. | WASHINGTON
TYLER COWEN has everyone talking about the exhaustion of much of the rich world's easy sources of rapid growth—its low-hanging fruit. Yesterday, President Obama visited America's border with Mexico to remind us all that there are plenty of growth opportunities out there waiting to be plucked. The president is, at long last, renewing his call for immigration reform, including creation of a path to citizenship for the country's undocumented immigrants. It would be nice if he would pair that with a strong call to allow in more foreign workers. Unfortunately, that's a difficult case to make to the American people in the best of times, and these are not the best of economic times.
But the case is strong on the merits. Allegations that immigrants are a drain on the Treasury or contribute to increased crime or drag down wages are either wrong or significantly overstated. At a time when America is concerned about excess housing supply and anxious to boost its innovative capacity it is madness that so many willing immigrants, including high-skilled workers, including those educated in America, find it difficult to impossible to gain permission to work in the country on a stable, long-term basis. And if one takes into account the enormous welfare gains to the immigrants themselves (and, immigrants being people, one should) it becomes clear that there are huge potential utility gains to letting more willing workers enter rich economies.
And economics side, we should support free immigration to the greatest extent possible based on liberal principles alone. People should be free to move and choose their own destiny. Governments shouldn't interfere with the right to immigrate any more than is necessary and certainly not to satisfy the nativist demands of unhappy citizens.
Those demands are understandable if repugnant. The lump of labour fallacy is seductive, and in times of economic hardship it becomes very difficult to convince people that more competition for scarce jobs will make their lives better. Here again it is clear that weak labour markets are the enemy of liberalism, and those concerned for the future of free markets should do what they can to alleviate that weakness.
But immigrants are people and they deserve a chance to move to maximise the return to their skills. When an immigrant moves to a rich country, that increases his or her welfare and boosts the productive potential of that country, which is good for everyone. Historically, relatively open immigration rules have been both a sign of and a source of national strength. If America can return to a more open past, the prospects for its economy will be considerably enhanced.
Source: The Economist.
