immigration - daniel bonevacphilosophical.space › 304 › immigration1.pdf · immigration “why...

IMMIGRATION

Sunday, November 21, 2010

THE SECOND GREAT WAVE


RECENT TRENDS


ABSOLUTE & RELATIVE NUMBERS


FOREIGN-BORN


RECENT TRENDS


TRENDS: UK


IMMIGRATION PATTERNS


IMMIGRATION EXPLORER


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html































































































































































































IMMIGRATION RATE


POPULATION


ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF IMMIGRATION

Deontological: The state has a duty to noncitizens as well as citizens

Consequentialist: Immigration promotes the welfare of native and nonnative populations


DEONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS


PURPOSE OF THE STATE

To protect its citizens (Locke: life, health, liberty, property)

To promote their welfare (Rousseau: general will; Bentham, Mill: utility)

To represent them to the world (Dummett)


COLLECTIVE OBLIGATIONS

Citizens of a state may have, collectively, obligations to citizens of other countries

“Collective selfishness is no more admirable a quality than individual selfishness.”


COLLECTIVE OBLIGATIONS

Actions of one country may have effects on others

Foreign policy actions: war, boycotts, trade policies, immigration policies

Internal, domestic decisions: energy use, consumption patterns


SOVEREIGNTY

National sovereignty: countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries

Can we interfere in the internal affairs of other families? Other individuals?


HUMAN RIGHTS

Foundation of state’s obligations to noncitizens: they are human beings

We can’t restrict our obligations to ourselves, our friends, our families, our fellow citizens


ASYLUM

States have a duty to the persecuted

They may not refuse them entry

But if so, countries do not have a right to keep others out


RIGHT TO EMIGRATE

Everyone has a right to emigrate—to leave their country

Social contract: legitimacy depends on consent

If people have a right to emigrate, then we can assume consent; they have stayed voluntarily

So, we can legitimately subject them to the law


RIGHT TO IMMIGRATE

Right to emigrate —> right to immigrate

If people have a right to leave, someone must have an obligation to take them in (at least in a world in which there is no more frontier)


CONSEQUENTIALIST ARGUMENTS


FREE MARKET ARGUMENT

Free economic exchanges maximize well-being

This requires freedom of economic decision-making

It requires free trade across borders

It requires free movement of people across borders


IMPROVEMENT

“You had a flood of immigrants, millions of them, coming to this country. What brought them here? It was the hope for a better life for them and their children. And, in the main, they succeeded. It is hard to find any century in history, in which so large a number of people experience so great an improvement in the conditions of their life, in the opportunities open to them, as in the period of the 19th and early 20th century.”


MUTUAL BENEFITS

“If you have free immigration, in the way we had it before 1914, everybody benefited. The people who were here benefited. The people who came benefited. Because nobody would come unless he, or his family, thought he would do better here than he would elsewhere. And, the new immigrants provided additional resources, provided additional possibilities for the people already here. So everybody can mutually benefit.”


IMMIGRATION

“Why is it that free immigration was a good thing before 1914 and free immigration is a bad thing today? Well, there is a sense in which that answer is right. There’s a sense in which free immigration, in the same sense as we had it before 1914 is not possible today. Why not?”


IMMIGRATION & WELFARE

“Because it is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both. If you have a welfare state, if you have a state in which every resident is promised a certain minimal level of income, or a minimum level of subsistence, regardless of whether he works or not, produces it or not. Then it really is an impossible thing.”


ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

“...Mexican immigration, over the border, is a good thing. It’s a good thing for the illegal immigrants. It’s a good thing for the United States. It’s a good thing for the citizens of the country. But, it’s only good so long as its illegal.”


ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

“That’s an interesting paradox to think about. Make it legal and it’s no good. Why? Because as long as it’s illegal the people who come in do not qualify for welfare, they don’t qualify for social security, they don’t qualify for the other myriad of benefits that we pour out from our left pocket to our right pocket. So long as they don’t qualify they migrate to jobs. They take jobs that most residents of this country are unwilling to take. They provide employers with the kind of workers that they cannot get. They’re hard workers, they’re good workers, and they are clearly better off.”


IMMIGRATION FACTS

Skills of successive waves of immigrants gave gradually declined

Economic assimilation doesn’t occur rapidly

Immigrants tend to earn less than natives throughout their entire lives

Those patterns persist in later generations


IMMIGRATION FACTS

Immigration of less-skilled workers probably reduces the opportunities of less-skilled natives

New immigrants have relatively high rates of welfare use (50% higher than natives)


IMMIGRATION FACTS

Immigration brings economic benefits

Those benefits are relatively small (.1% GDP?)

Redistribute wealth: from those who compete with immigrants to those who use immigrants’ services


STATE’S OBLIGATIONS

The state’s primary obligation is to protect the welfare of its citizens

It may have other obligations, but obligations to its citizens come first

What kind of immigration policy would do protect citizens’ welfare?


SKILLED IMMIGRANTS

This suggests an argument against admitting low-skilled workers, but in favor of those with higher levels of skill


SKILLED IMMIGRANTS

Skilled immigrants earn more, pay higher taxes, require fewer social services than less-skilled immigrants

Skilled immigration increases the after-tax income of natives

Skilled immigration is a good investment


SKILLED IMMIGRANTS

Many industries (especially high-tech industries) depend heavily on getting the world’s best talent

International competition makes it more important than ever to recruit people from all across the globe


PRODUCTIVITY

Economic gains depend on improvements in productivity

High-skilled workers raise the average level of productivity

They bring in skills, knowledge, experience, abilities that natives lack


DIVERSITY

Immigrants benefit when they mix with native population

They lag behind when they remain in ethnic enclaves

Diversity in immigration: diverse mix of national origins

No nation should dominate the immigrant flow


immigration - daniel bonevacphilosophical.space › 304 › immigration1.pdf · immigration “why...

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