Open borders, integrated economy
U.S. would benefit from a policy that allows freer labor migration
By Kevin R. Johnson –
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Sacremento Bee
Following is an excerpt from Kevin R. Johnson’s new book, “Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws.” Johnson is associate dean for academic affairs and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law at the University of California, Davis. AND… and Chicana/o Studies
Faculty Webpage [1]
ImmigrationProf Blog [2]
Time and time again, U.S. immigration law has been well behind global and domestic changes, resulting in numerous laws and incidents that we now regret as a nation. Sadly, the United States is still behind the times. In terms of immigration policy, the nation still lives in a world of kingdoms with moats, walls and barriers, rather than a modern world of mass transportation, the Internet and daily international intercourse.
It is a cliché to say that the globalizing economy and technological improvements in communication and transportation have made the world a smaller place. But it is true. Increased trade, movement and interconnections between nations are much more common now than they have ever been. Many citizens of the modern world have ties to multiple nations. Migrants often have deep ties both to their native countries and to their countries of destination.
To this point, the U.S. immigration laws have responded in rather limited ways to the phenomenon of globalization. Incremental reforms have done little to address the nation’s true immigrations needs. Similarly, the rights of immigrants have tended to expand over time but have done so in fits and starts. After years of consideration, the U.S. government took the cautious step of recognizing dual nationality, which quickly grew in popularity among Mexican nationals living the United States. However, the U.S. immigration laws have failed more generally to respond to the globalizing economy.
Open borders are consistent with the integrating world economy. I have outlined arguments for a far-reaching change in the U.S. immigration laws that would respond to the rapidly changing world in which we live. Open borders would mark a true revolution in current U.S. immigration law and would create an admissions system in which migration more closely approximated demand.
The elimination of exaggerated border controls would offer many benefits to the United States. As part of a globalizing economy, the nation stands to reap economic benefits from freer labor migration. As a matter of economic theory, international trade with Mexico and much of the world, which the United States has eagerly embraced, differs little from labor migration. A utilitarian approach would allow for labor migration and add the benefits of new labor to the national economy.
Importantly, the removal of controls would end the sheer brutality inherent in current immigration enforcement, which results in physical abuse, promotes racial discrimination and relegates certain groups of U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants to second-class status, both inside and outside the United States. Permeable boarders would allow for the admission of immigrants in numbers approximating the demand for immigration and make it unnecessary for many noncitizens seeking entry into the United States to circumvent the law. The immigration laws would not created the need for aggressive enforcement, with its discriminatory impacts and deadly results.
There is more from this far left America hater HERE. [3]
For the pro-American side of this, see here. [4]