Targeted Persuasion - Immigration

It takes a different approach to change a different mind.

This is the first of what will be an occasional feature here at MM where I attempt to write from two very different perspectives aiming to persuade different audiences. While we would like to think we are immune to tribal thinking, the prevalence of social desirability bias proves otherwise.

Likewise, we live in bubbles that are often invisible to us. We hear what we want to hear rather than what is actually being said. This is less a problem when the voice speaking is speaking our language.

To have a chance at working, persuasion must be genuine. It cannot condescend nor assume away objections.

So take this as a well-intended attempt at meeting people where they come from rather than where I happen to be. Obviously, this is presumptuous—that I could adapt a message for a hostile opponent such that I win them over—but it is a lot less presumptuous than the idea I can use brute force to bend their will.

In this post I will attempt to present arguments in favor of a radically more open immigration policy (not “open borders” but dramatically more immigration than we have today). In one case I will be writing to convince conservatives and in the other progressives.

****DON’T READ THE MESSAGE NOT MEANT FOR YOU****

Conservatives Only

America was founded on a frontier philosophy with the individual and the family as primary. Our nation was built upon the hopes and dreams of those who sought a better life for themselves. The American Dream is a dream that no man should be the subject of a king for he should be a king unto himself.

The success of America is because of the success of those who dared to live this dream and make it their reality. Ours is a land of opportunity. By exercising their God-given right to pursue opportunities, men and women have secured a better world for themselves, their families, and their communities. When the state impedes this pursuit of happiness, many are unrightfully harmed. Consider that in America you shouldn’t need the government’s permission to get a job nor to hire someone. That is a decision best and rightfully left to the person being hired and the business wishing to hire them.

The cause of greatly expanding and simplifying the process of immigration is to the equal benefit of those who wish to come and those who are here awaiting the opportunity of others’ arrival. While not obvious in the abstract, it is quite obvious in any specific case that a person already in America would be able to benefit from a new arrival.

Every business benefits from more customers. Every consumer benefits from more suppliers—true not only for additional numbers but also for new variety and innovation. Every economy benefits from more workers.

Rather than realize benefits such as these, we are stuck in a world where willing workers and willing employers are not allowed to meet. More and more we greatly need new, young workers as well as experienced people with some combination of high skill or strong work ethic. And these are not just workers. These are consumers ready to shop in our stores and families hoping to participate in our communities.

All the while a noxious underworld festers where sinister actors prey upon the desperate who simply seek a better life. Instead of allowing traffickers to package and ship people, we should seek to capture the $5,000 to $20,000 each immigrant pays them in this awful arrangement by instead allowing them a safe and law-abiding entry. Let this be the fee to help defray the cost of processing arrivals.¹ After screening to eliminate known criminals, give them work permits, a reasonable path to citizenship, and well-defined limits on welfare—assuming this is necessary.

The limits of immigration should be set by the market not the government. No government official can possibly know how many workers are needed or where and when they are needed. When opportunities arise, people migrate until the opportunities no longer justify the migration. It is true between any two places inside a nation as well as between any two places internationally. But when the government artificially induces people to come, prevents others from coming, and conducts the entire affair with haphazard abandon, chaos reigns.

As to concerns that our culture will change as the result of meaningfully greater levels of immigration, it is crucial to understand that those who come are more like us than those who do not. The immigrant is choosing us and our nation and our freedom and our culture.

History has proven repeatedly and consistently that the foundational strength of the American way of life endures and shapes the immigrant. While immigrant cultures have always added immensely to the melting pot of America yielding beneficial enrichment time and again, the ideals, principles, and laws of our land endure unblemished. As long as there is an orderly and transparent process for accepting those seeking entry including denying those who clearly seek to do us harm, there is no doubt in the continuity of our values.

Americans and would-be Americans deserve an immigration policy and process that is clearly defined, well run, and working for the benefit of America.

Progressives Only

People should be free to work where they wish, marry who they want, and peaceably live as they choose. This is true of ALL people, not just those who happen to be born within a certain geography. The dream of a world of equality includes freedom of movement as a foundational principle. For without this freedom, the opportunity for economic and personal freedom and fulfillment is unrightfully limited.

As long America is a wealthy, prosperous country, people will long to come here to participate in and contribute to the prosperity. The greater the disparity between our nation and others, the greater the desire will be to leave a nation of low opportunity bound for our nation’s high opportunity. Thus, the desire to immigrate to America will (hopefully) always be with us.

This is true regardless of the state of openness and ease of immigration—less openness and greater difficulty simply increases the cost of it. Raise this cost high enough, and the desirability to immigrate will indeed extinguish. Yet this is no more desirable an outcome than would be making our nation itself so devoid of opportunity and wealth that all people elsewhere would rather stay in place than come here. In fact reducing immigration by means of restrictiveness carries other costs as well.

Having a more restrictive immigration policy means only the most desperate or well off would find it reasonable to pay the high cost. For the most well off this means simply moving the machinery of government to suit their needs—something they do often and with ease otherwise. For the most desperate this means finding alternative means through illicit markets paying dearly and risking everything for the chance. To say this is unfair is quite an understatement—true both for the most desperate as well as the very many in the middle left out entirely since the toll was too high.

The most desperate face not just a label of being “illegal” but also an on-going struggle living a vulnerable life. Illegal immigration allows the exploitation of workers since generally only bad actors (to one degree or another) operate in that black market. An immigrant here illegally faces a constant risk that the next car wreck, quarrel with the boss, or moment of being a crime victim will completely upend theirs and their families’ lives.

Because they can be exploited (harsh working conditions, low pay, blackmail, etc.), illegal immigrants (and the firms that employ them) become unfair competitive threats to those who can legally be employed. Thus, employees (illegal and legal) face asymmetric difficulties leaving all employees harmed.

For those here who might benefit from a new friend, coworker, life partner, etc., they too are missing out on opportunities that would otherwise be. This should not be dismissed. Regardless, this hardship pales in comparison to those internationally who seek to flee extreme poverty and repression. Those who seek our asylum seek simply refuge in a land of freedom that we luckily enjoy—lucky in that we did not control the good fortune of advantageous geographical birth. For those among us fortunate enough to have earned U.S. citizenship (immigrant citizens) it should be all the more obvious how precious this gift is.

As to concerns that our culture will change as the result of meaningfully greater levels of immigration, this audience knows this change to be a strong net positive. Diversity enriches us all. New ideas and new perspectives are key ingredients for progress and growth.

For as the Parsi legend captured here tells it:

The priestly leaders of the Parsis were brought before the local ruler, Jadhav Rana, who presented them with a vessel full of milk to signify that the surrounding lands could not possibly accommodate any more people. The Parsi head priest responded by slipping some sugar into the milk to signify how the strangers would enrich the local community without displacing them. They would dissolve into life like sugar dissolves in the milk, sweetening the society but not unsettling it. The ruler responded to the eloquent image and granted the exiles land and permission to practice their religion unhindered if they would respect local customs, and learn the local language, Gujarati.

This is a land of promise—the promise of opportunity for all and especially for those who need it most. To frame immigration as our opportunity to share this promise is warm but incomplete. The immigrant not only gains opportunities. The immigrant brings opportunities. The immigrant brings with them labor and ideas as well as hopes and dreams. The immigrant chooses us, and we should see this as a gift.

1. For those arriving without these funds, allow them to borrow against future earnings or have a sponsor (friend, charity, or employer) pay it.