Immigration

The Hamilton Mixtape: Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)

Now it is stuck in your head.

Unless you live in East Africa, your ancestors came from somewhere else (if you go back far enough). If you are reading this blog, you are probably quite fortunate that they were able to.

At first glance, it would seem that the only ethical stance would be that anyone should be allowed to move wherever they want. I should have no more of a "right" to be a citizen of the United States just because I was born here. I am not "proud" to be an American - I did nothing for that. I am simply lucky to be an American.

However, a broader utilitarian view might soften the stance of "open borders." The people who might benefit the most from coming to the United States are generally not the people who have the ability to come here. The educated and relatively wealthier individuals from Venezuela or Egypt or Russia would be much more likely to take advantage of open borders than a displaced person in Sudan or Syria. This "brain drain" would probably increase the utility of those who made it to the U.S. but make everyone left behind worse off. (The stereotype of a New York taxi driver who was a doctor in their home country.)

More importantly, we have to consider the full consequences of what we advocate.

It is similar to saying that "vegan" is the only morally ethical diet, so saying "Go Vegan!" is what we must advocate. But in the real world, doing so hurts animals.

Similarly, as Peter Singer said to Ezra Klein:

Ezra Klein: Is open borders a moral imperative?

Peter Singer: If the public as a whole was more accepting of the idea of mass immigration. But given that concerns about immigration have clearly brought about the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit vote, and the election of right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland, I think that the moral imperative is not to have open borders.

Immigration is an important issue, but it’s not the only issue. I think climate change, for example, is a significantly more important issue, and all of the conservatives who get elected on the anti-immigrant bandwagon have been opposed to taking any serious steps to prevent climate change.

At this point, I think we are best served by not advocating for open borders. Rather, we should strenuously make the case that we will enforce our laws, while both humanizing immigrants already here and working behind the scenes to increase funding to the asylum system.