Immigrants are Important for Disaster Reconstruction
This piece was originally published at the Cato-at-Liberty blog here and is reproduced with permission from the author. Hurricane Sandy walloped the East Coast yesterday. The strongest part of the...
View Article“Only high IQ immigrants” fails to understand comparative advantage
OK, it’s time to give some strong back talk to this meme of “only high IQ immigration is good” which we’re getting in the comments. The simple rebuttal to “only high IQ immigration is good” is that...
View ArticleNon-Refoulement (and “Secretary Hildebrand”)
In 1077, the monk Hildebrand who had become pope and taken the name Gregory VII, excommunicated the German emperor, causing a collapse of his power, on the grounds that the latter had usurped the...
View ArticleThe nation-state is militarily obsolete
If Germany were invaded by Russia, Germans would probably trust their army of 70,000 (maybe 200,000+ deployable in all forces), with little combat experience, to attempt to defend them against the...
View ArticleCitizenism versus collective property rights, and voters versus representatives
The term citizenism has been much in vogue lately. Sonic Charmer’s blog post I, Citizenist started the trend. My co-blogger Nathan wrote two blog posts on citizenism, one on the citizenist case for...
View ArticleChristianity vs. citizenism
In my most recent post, I wrote the following passage: I am certainly no citizenist myself. In fact, for purposes of the present post, I’d rather not admit what my attitude to citizenism as a...
View ArticleAre immigrant rights activists friends of open borders?
NOTE: This article focuses on the United States, though some of its points may be more generally applicable. In a blog post I’m currently drafting (which will hopefully be published shortly after this...
View ArticlePlace premium versus race premium
Co-blogger John Lee has written an interesting post on the place premium — the extent to which a person’s current location affects that person’s earnings — and how it compares with various estimates...
View ArticleImmigration, emigration, and the rule of law
Large numbers of people in the United States (and possibly elsewhere) draw a sharp distinction between legal and illegal immigration. Common refrains include, “I have nothing against immigration, only...
View ArticleOpen borders and the libertarian priority list: part 2
This is the second of a planned series of three blog posts regarding where open borders fit in the libertarian priority list. In part one, I laid out the overall agenda of the series: I aim to consider...
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Immigration, a worse crime than child sex exploitation
I want you to read this story about the families — the American families — who have been separated by US immigration laws. It is heart-wrenching. Most offenses, civil or criminal, have statutes of...
View Article“Pro-immigrant” restrictionists — the fine print
NOTE: This post is mostly US-specific, but some of the observations may also apply in other countries. I don’t have enough knowledge to comment about other countries. The US’s leading restrictionist...
View ArticleThe citizenist case for open borders
The term “citizenism” is not exactly a household word, but it seems to be becoming more current, at least among the EconLog/Open Borders circle of discussants. Good! I am certainly no citizenist...
View ArticleHow persuasive are open borders advocates? The case of Bryan Caplan
To make any comment about the extent to which resources should be devoted to open borders advocacy, and the way the resources should be allocated, one must have at least some idea of how effective...
View Article“I couldn’t accept that aging rulers simply decreed: “‘You can’t leave the...
Der Spiegel has an interesting story on how one East German couple plotted to emigrate “legally” to West Germany. It’s an interesting read, and it calls to mind one of the most fundamental moral...
View ArticleCharter city constitutions: filling in the blank
This post may seem off-topic, but from my point of view it’s relevant because I think of charter cities as part of the “master plan” for open borders. My master plan has four parts: Advocacy and moral...
View ArticleChilecon Valley
Post by Nathan Smith (regular blogger for the site, joined April 2012). See: all posts by Nathan Smith Nathan Smith's personal statement From The Economist: THE world’s most valuable resource is...
View ArticleWage discrimination’s elephant in the room
Besides illuminating the horror of both candidates’ immigration policies, the 2nd US presidential debate this year was noteworthy for other reasons, such as Mitt Romney’s by-now infamous “binders full...
View Article“The Christian Perspective on Immigration”
I was struck by the beginning of this article published at the website of the anti-immigration group, Center for Immigration Studies: What are They Thinking: A Look at the Roman Catholic “Doctrine” on...
View ArticleClosed borders kill people
Open borders advocates have long seized philosophical hypotheticals to argue that open borders would, quite literally, save lives. Restrictionists tend to jump through all kinds of hoops to argue that...
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