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IPFS News Link • Immigration

Restricting Immigration Violates Native Property Rights

• https://fee.org, Howard Baetjer, Jr.

I think that's an unhelpful way of framing it; it's collectivist. It seems to ask whether any and all immigrants should be free to go anywhere they wish, or whether (a majority of) the native-born may exclude all immigrants from going anywhere in the country. Isn't there some middle ground, whereby some of the native-born may admit some immigrants to some places but not others?

A property rights approach can help us answer this question.

Imagine a representative scenario:

A group of poor immigrants head for some US town to work on the farms there. They arrive at the US border. If they are allowed in, they get on a bus that takes them to the town, stopping at rest stops along the way to eat and stretch their legs.

When the immigrants arrive at the town with the jobs, they walk to a boardinghouse offering bunk rooms and simple cooking facilities. They pay their rent to the boardinghouse owner and get some rest.


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