My argument for immigration is much simpler and less
romantic. Let me be clear that I am not addressing legal/illegal immigration
but instead the broader notion of people migrating from one country to another.
While I disagree with their conclusions, I at least understand the logic of
people who say that open borders make a nation less secure, or that illegal
immigrants ought not be granted the same civil liberties (particularly voting)
as natural(ized) citizens. But there is another very specific argument used by
opponents of immigration that I’m sure you’ve all heard it before:
“THEY’RE
TAKING OUR JOBS!”
It
makes perfect sense if you don’t think about it. There are a certain number of
jobs available, and increasing the population makes those jobs harder for any
individual to get.
That would be absolutely true if
immigrants were self-sufficient, needless automatons, but they are in fact not.
Instead, it turns out that immigrants also like to go to restaurants, buy new
clothes, and seek better job opportunities as they gain more experience. In
other words, immigration does not simply serve to increase the supply of labor,
but also to increase the demand for goods and services.
Granted,
I do not understand xenophobia. Maybe I’m just not proud enough of my country.
Maybe I grew up in too poor a place to realize that an influx of low-skill
workers makes everyone else worse off. Maybe I’m too sarcastic. But truly, I
think it’s because I really, really love free-market concepts, whether it be as
they apply to interest rates, labor markets, or even population. I’ll be the first to admit that I am at times
a cripplingly logical person; sometimes that puts me at odds with others
because my brain is wired to place utility before emotion, making me appear
callous. But if I hear one more person argue about how they just love the free
market economy, then directly contradict themselves by advocating for economic
protectionism (which is what closed-border policy really is), I might lose it.
Even
if you disagree with me and believe comparative advantage is stupid, a nation
is only as strong as its manufacturing sector, and the American dream applies
solely to people who were either born here or can spare years of their life and
thousands of dollars, there is one thing that is not debatable: if any human
being is valuable, then all human beings are valuable. If it so suits your
politics to believe that every illegal alien should be deported tomorrow, so be
it, but if you claim to know the God of grace and mercy, then be very conscious
of how you treat people in the process. After all, if you believe that Christ
died for us while we were yet sinners, and that all have fallen short of the
glory of God, then it is nothing if not our entire calling to treat the people
with whom we come into contact with our highest possible degree of grace and
love, even when that may be the most inconvenient thing we can imagine.
Anything less is just
taking the Lord’s name in vain.
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