Links 2023-09-04 - Immigration
A few on one of the most important issues
Remembering that immigration is one of my Big Six, here are four excellent, recent pieces on the topic.
First, David Bier reminds us of a fact that almost no one seems to understand: legal immigration is nearly impossible. It DOES NOT EXIST in the good ol’ USA.
Dismissive answers like “get in line” and “I support legal immigration” are at best ignorant distractions and at worst intentional support of human suffering.
Second, doubt this? Well, try your luck at the Green Card Game. I bet you can’t get in.
Third, perhaps you don’t believe in immigration. Michael Huemer defeats the arguments against immigration establishing clearly that immigration is a human right.
Fourth, for the truly ambitious Alex Nowrasteh has a deep dive thoroughly debunking “brain drain” as an argument against immigration. For those not so ambitious, consider these two slices:
Take the more extreme scenarios of 1) all Haitians moving to the United States or 2) all Haitians being locked in Haiti with a doubled growth rate. In the case of all Haitians moving here, their average GDP per capita PPP would rise to $33,050 tomorrow. In the locked-in scenario with a doubled growth rate, it would take until 2106 for the average Haitian GDP per capita PPP to reach $33,050. It would take generations of higher growth for the standard of living in Haiti to rise to the level for Haitians living in Florida today.
And
Productive emigrants leave because they can’t be as productive in their home countries. The implicit assumption of brain drainers is that immigrants would have been similarly productive in their home countries. If Elon Musk had stayed in South Africa, the argument goes, he would have started the South African equivalents of PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla there and South Africa would have been much richer. But this ignores the reasons why emigrants leave for economic opportunities: They can’t start those firms in their home countries or can’t find such high-paying jobs there.
If Musk had stayed, he would have had to serve in the Apartheid-era military and then build his companies under the corrupt and kleptocratic governments of Apartheid and post-Apartheid South Africa. We wouldn't know his name if he'd stayed behind, and the world would be poorer as a result, although he may have been successful by South African standards.