The coronavirus has shut down much of the traffic across the borders of the United States. When the U.S. reopens, it will be a time well-suited to adjust our border policy. Immigration has been needlessly constricted for too long, with nativist tendencies manufacturing a crisis about undocumented immigrants.
The effects of constrained immigration are being seen right now on the European agricultural industry, which now lacks enough labourers to harvest the crops. Yet our whole country has been operating under a regime of minimal immigration compared to the vast number of people who could benefit overall from a better life in the U.S.
Immigration, in the long run, will generally increase the vitality of the American economy. It can only do that more so if the doors of the United States are thrown open to all non-criminals who wish to come.
This will also remove some of the inequities in who is able to immigrate. Citizens of many poorer nations find themselves unable to navigate the legal immigration policy and instead end up coming to the United States illegally. However, that’s not inherently the case.
A good starting point would be to reduce the metaphorical ties that keep immigration so low with any country that is willing to do the same. People could then flow equitably to wherever they can most use their abilities, supporting the general health of the global economy.
Will America gain population? Will America lose population? There are no guarantees, but a system that frees up immigration will put more people in America who believe in the United States and what it means for them. America, of course, now also has an incentive to keep the best of all the people who wish to be here, since those with better opportunities elsewhere can leave.
If we truly believe in the American Dream, it’s comical and ridiculous to restrict it to those who are already here, or those who can afford to enter America. It’s time to give everybody a shot at prosperity, and let the global economy flow unfettered by borders to workers.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eloise Rich and Audrey Dezern/The ECHO
