Thanks berdan for clearing some things up. However I do disagree with a few points:
Third world countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc.... Uncontrollable population growth is making everyone poorer. More people to share among.This is not true for Bangladesh anymore. They are graduating from a undeveloped nation into a developing nation. See Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, India, and a lot of the "freer" developing world. These are the countries with the (pre-COVID-19) GDP growth rates of 8%/year. This is what happens when you get "uncontrollable" population growth with a combination of "good" institutions and "free" society. They have a long way to go, but they are doing much better than Afghanistan, which you and I both know isn't a fair case example for immigration.
Also, google ECOWAS. You'll be surprised at some of the work that is going on in Western Africa.
So I think the answer is somewhere between two extremes.
Exteme 1: Closed borders, zero immigration policy, all population must be born on US soil.
Extreme 2: We're all equal and love everybody, so if 200 million poor people want to come here? No problem, US government will pay for their fly ticket and welcome them with all rights and benefits. We can't deny anyone the right to be free!My beliefs on immigration are held by only about 70% of libertarians, including Amash, and not many others. Extreme 1 would mean our population, and especially Europe's population if they applied the same rules, would drop drastically over time. Not good.
Extreme 2 is also a cherry picked fear-mongering example. If we loosened immigration restrictions, the undocumented immigrants would be replaced with legal and documented immigrants. Not much would change in the composition of our country, we would just document peoples who were previously undocumented. Also, I believe that all welfare should be abolished (and perhaps replaced with a small UBI) so that isn't applicable to my argument.
Not all migrants are created equal. That's why it's bad to allow criminals, and good to import skilled workers.Part of the immigration process is, and would be under any Libertarian, an international crime check. This is why cooperation is very important with other countries. I do believe though that beyond this, all immigrants are created equal. You can't judge someone based off of their current skills, because all people are born with zero "skills". Lots of people come to the United States and do something much more productive than they were doing.
Get an immigrant from Haiti who is making $4 a day and bring him to the United States where he can make $80 a day. That 4000% increase in his productivity is beneficial to literally everyone involved:
- GDP of the United States increases.
- The immigrant's economic status rises.
- The employer can get cheaper, more efficient, and higher quality labor.
- He can choose to send money back to any family in Haiti.
https://fee.org/articles/how-free-migration-could-double-the-economy/Let the nations with the institutions to handle mass amounts of people. If you think that immigrants are a threat to your safety, consider who supplies your cheap goods and services.
