The Selfishness of the Unselfish

By Donald J. Boudreaux
from Ideas on Liberty, June, 2000

Imagine being awakened one morning by a loud knocking on your door. You stumble downstairs and find your neighbor standing before you with a friendly smile across his face and a frightening rifle across his shoulder. Behind him you see your yard surrounded by a newly built barbed-wire fence....
If you support restrictions on immigration you do tolerate such an exercise of authority by others to screen the people with whom you associate on your own property. [Click here for full article.]

The Benefits of Immigration by Donald J. Boudreaux (December, 1997 The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty)
In my October "Notes from FEE" I challenged a case, made by some market advocates, for immigration restrictions. I have since received scolding letters and E-mails from numerous people predicting that open borders would bring all manner of calamities. While some writers were less certain than others about the baleful consequences of unregulated immigration, only one correspondent fully shared my support for eliminating all immigration restrictions.
These many letters have prompted me to think longer and harder about immigration. Alas, my opinion remains unchanged: we should welcome all immigrants. Government should not redistribute income to immigrants, but neither should government prevent immigration. [Click here for full article on FEE web site.]

Immigration Restrictions: Less than Meets the Eye by Donald Boudreaux
When immigration is restricted, the obvious - the "seen" - effect is that some domestic workers are spared the misfortune of having to find new jobs or of taking pay cuts. The unseen effect is not only a general reduction in domestic well-being, but a dangerous expansion of government's power to determine with whom its citizens may and may not associate. [Immigration articles on Don Boudreaux's Cafe Hayek site ]

The Return to a Global Economy by Ian Vásquez (from November, 2000)
...One area in which the world is decidedly less liberal than it was under the Pax Britannica is that of immigration. Although technological advances have made travel far more affordable and convenient than in the nineteenth century when restrictions on immigration were minimal or nonexistent, today most countries in the world&emdash;certainly most rich countries&emdash;have an array of labor and immigration regulations. As economist Deepak Lal convincingly explains, such restrictions on the movement of people exist today because citizenship concedes rights to the services provided by the welfare state.... [Click here for full article.]

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