Immigration: The case for open borders
• Western rejection of economic protectionism.
•What is immigration restriction? (Prevention of voluntary transactions).
• Current status of immigration restriction in the west.
Imagine that you, as an Australian, wanted to move to another city. You currently live in Melbourne,
but decided that you may have a be&er quality of life living in, say, Bendigo. The only way for you to
get there, however, would be to enrol into a multi-year process involving lawyers, legal costs,
signiticant ve,ng, and temporary restrictions on your ability to work. On top of all that, it is not even
guaranteed that your “application” to move to Bendigo will be approved. How popular do you think
this kind of policy would be? Most Australians would probably view this as a massive, unacceptable,
and possibly fascistic expansion of state power. It is extremely unlikely that such a policy could ever
be implemented with the consent of the Australian people. This, however, is a reality that billions of
people face. Welcome to the world of an immigrant.
•The moral argument for immigration.
Immigration is, fundamentally, a policy rooted in protectionism. Restrictions on immigration prevent
voluntary interactions between landlords and renters, employers and job-seekers, sellers and buyers,
all based on geography. We would never impose these restrictions based on gender, ethnicity, or
religion, so why do we discriminate based on birthplace? Like most protectionist arguments,
opposition to immigration is tainted by xenophobia and (economic) ignorance. Although there are
