Tear Down This Wall; R. Shannon

The border between Eastern and Western Europe has not always been sealed. Now, at a time when the Soviet leader is preaching a policy of "glasnost" (openness), President Reagan urged him to take a dramatic step beyond talk to action. As a sign that he really means what he says about expanding freedom, President Reagan urged: ,'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Yet less than one month after the President's proclamation, a terrifying event revealed that Soviet Russia and its satellites have no mo nopoly on border problems. Not far from EI Paso, Texas, a railroad car was opened to dis close the bodies of 18 Mexicans who had per ished in a desperate attempt to cross the Mex ican border into the United States. The border between Mexico and the U. S. has not always been sealed. Until about a cen tury ago, we welcomed people from other Professor Shannon teaches in the Economics Department, Clemson University.

lands. No walls had been erected and so no one stood guard at our gates to check entry visas. Immigrants came in great numbers, some escaping political tyranny and religious repres sion, others responding to the promise of eco nomic opportunity. Indeed, according to Oxford University pro fessor John Gray, in the century prior to World War I, not only in the United States but throughout Europe, "Everyone believed that free migration promoted prosperity. Statesmen took for granted that the freedom to travel was part of the market economy. " Classical econo mists argued that, "Just as tariffs and quotas resulted only in dislocating the world market and decreasing economic welfare, so too immi gration controls resulted in economic stagna tion and the waste of human resources." (The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 1983) Yet, toward the end of the last century, atti tudes changed. We began to impose restric tions, first limiting the entry of Orientals, then others. By now we have a rather rigid system designed to control both the numbers and types of people entering the country. Although legis lation passed by Congress in 1986 granted am nesty to many who were living here illegally, it also imposed new constraints on employers in an effort to make further immigration less at tractive.

During the summer of 1987, numerous re ports from the northwestern states revealed that crops of fresh fruits and vegetables were in danger of rotting for lack of labor to harvest them. Why do we deny entry to willing la borers when there is so clearly much work to be done?

22 THE FREEMAN. JANUARY 1988 Traffic coming into Laredo, Texas from Mexico must pass through the u.s. Customs checkpoint where citizen ship papers or documents for passage are presented. Consider the following points: • In general, immigrants do not become a burden to taxpayers. In fact, economist Julian Simon has shown that immigrants tend to be net contributors to government revenues, rather than a net drain. Often young and vigorous, they frequently pay income and social security taxes for many years, only to return to their homelands before receiving their full benefits. (The Freeman, January 1986) • While it may be true that in some in stances immigrants take jobs away from people who were born in the United States, there is also much evidence that Americans often don't want the jobs immigrants take. • If working conditions for immigrants are frequently below our standards, the fact that immigrants have·come here voluntarily at often great risk to themselves suggests that the op portunities they find here are at least superior to those they left at home.

• What's more, when the immigrants spend their incomes to buy food, clothing, and shelter, they provide additional jobs for people already here-an application of the famous old economic principle known as Say's Law: "Supply creates its own demand." • In recent years, much concern has been expressed about the so-called "deindustrializa tion" of America. Whether the facts support these fears or not, the influx of workers willing to take jobs at low pay helps to discourage American producers from setting up shop out side our borders to cut labor costs. And for the rest of us, their work keeps the cost of products down and helps to improve our standard of living. When people such as the Mexicans are dying in their efforts to break through the barricades and enter the U.S., just as others have died at tempting to breach the barriers surrounding Eastern Europe, some extremely troubling questions demand answers: Do we have legiti mate economic, moral, and political grounds for denying immigrants access to the freedoms and opportunities which we enjoy in such abundance? Can we justly deny to others what once was offered to our ancestors? Can we crit icize the restrictive emigration policies of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European neighbors when we engage in restrictive immi gration policies?

In view of these concerns, would it not now be most appropriate for the President to follow up his dramatic challenge in Berlin by jour neying to Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego and, regarding our own unwarranted barriers to the free movement of the world's peoples, say: "Members of Congress, tear down this wall." 0 23 Yugoslavia: Trouble in the Halfway House by Melvin D. Barger W hat's wrong in Yugoslavia? The news reports out of Belgrade speak of a troubled country with a stagnating economy, ruinous inflation, out-of control foreign debt, rebellious workers, and a defiant citizenry. These problems would be ominous in any country, but they are especially so in Yugoslavia. One fear is that mounting troubles could force Yugoslavia back into the tight Soviet orbit it escaped in 1948. There are also worries of exacerbating tensions among the different national groups in the Yugoslav federation. Another fear is that Yugoslavia whose individual countries helped create the term "Balkanize"-could simply unravel as a unified nation.