Freedom For Eveyone; M. Skousen

But now Peter Brimelow has joined those who are calling for a drastic curtailment·if not entire elimination of new immigrants entering the United States. Peter demands sanctions and even criminal penalties against U.S. employers who hire undocu mented workers. He also supports the es tablishment of a national identity card, which he says "is hardly more an encroach ment on personal freedom than the income Dr. Skousen is an economist at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida 32789, and editor of Fore casts & Strategies, one ofthe largest investment newsletters in the country. For more information about his newsletter and books, contact Phillips Publishing Inc. at (800) 777-5005. tax. ,,1 He recommends another crackdown (Operation Wetback) on illegals by the much-hated Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), including the use of police attack dogs. Finally, he endorses building a huge barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, somethingakin to a Berlin Wall. (How about solvingthe problem right away by putting up signs along the border, "Trespassers Will Be Shot" 1) Allthese plans, of course, would mean thousands of new federal agents and billions in taxpayer dollars, but no matter.

America's "lax" immigration policy is a "disaster," Peter says, and something must be done. Isn't it amazing how a single issue can lead to so much government intervention1 The Benefits of Immigration Currently, approximately one million le gal immigrants are allowed to enter the U.S. each year (recent legal aliens included, iron ically, Peter Brimelow and his wife). Esti mates of illegal immigrants run as high as two million a year. Half the world's immi grants come to America. Is this an alarming trend? Far from a disaster, a liberal immigration policy can be quite beneficial. A cardinal principle of economic liberty is the free movement of goods, capital, and people. As Mises states, "In a world of perfect mobility of capital, labor, and products there prevails a tendency toward an equalization of the 592 material conditions of all countries. ,,2 With out this freedom, some areas are overpop ulated, others are underpopulated. Wage rates and interest rates differ dramatically.

A recent article in The New York Times, appropriately published on Independence Day, reflects the dynamics of immigrationin the United States: "Dead-End Jobs? Not for These Three. Immigrants Flourish in the McDonald's System.,,3 It testifies to the energy and talent immigrants can bring to America. In January, 1993, the European Commu nity of 12 nations adopted free immigration. Any citizen of the EC can live and work in any other EC country without a work per miL The effect will be a transfer of labor from low-wage countries (Spain, Portugal, Greece) to high-wage countries (Germany, France, England). Who will benefit in the long run? All members of the EC. The Cuban Miracle One of the best cases in favor of immi gration is the Cuban miracle in Miami, Florida. Here was potentially one of those disasters that Peter Brimelow talks about. In the early 1960s some 200,000penurious immigrants thronged this stagnant urban community, more than the total black un employed youths in all America's urban areas at the time. It was the most rapid and overwhelming migration to one American city. Few spoke English and virtually none had jobs or housing. Yet in less than a decade, these Cuban immigrants revived Miami's stagnant inner city and transformed the entire Miami economy. Even with an other 125,000boat people fleeing to Miami in the early 1980s, Dade County continued to have one of the lowest rates of unem ployment in the state of Florida. George Gilder, who has chronicled·the Cuban mir acle, concludes, "As long as the United States is open to these flows from afar, it is open to its own revival.,,4 593 There are many examples in other parts of the world where refugees and immigrants have transformed their new homes. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore come to mind. Foreign tyranny has led to much economic and social progress in exile.

Don't get me wrong. Immigration is not without its side effects, well-documented in Peter Brimelow's book. Burdens on local government's educational, health, and wel fare services can be immense. But free people and free markets can adjust surpris ingly well if they are allowed to. Certainly, no one should object to any immigrant who is in good health, has a guaranteed job, and refuses to take welfare. The Best Foreign Policy Unfortunately, most emigrants leave their homeland not because they want to, but because they have to. If governments were less corrupt and onerous in their economic policies, fewer of their citizens would desire to emigrate. If they adopted free-market reforms (slashing taxes, regulations, infla tion, and boondoggles), fewer of their citi zens would move to America. Perhaps the greatest foreign assistance America could give to Mexico, China, and other countries whose citizens are moving to America in droves is a copy of Ludwig von Mises' Human Action or a subscription to The Freeman. Putting up barriers at our borders is a much more expensive and dangerous alternative.

Jefferson said, "All men are created equal." They shouldn't be penalized just because they happened to be born in the wrong place. D 1. Peter Brimelow, Alien Nation (Random House, 1994), p.26O. 2. Ludwig von Mises, Money, Method and the Market Process (Kluwer, 1990), p. 141. 3. "Dead End Jobs?" by Barnaby J. Feder, New York Times, July 4, 1995, p. 27. 4. George Gilder, The Spirit of Enterprise (Simon & Schuster, 1984), p. 111. See also Julian L. Simon, The Economic Consequences of Immigration (Basil Blackwell, 1989).