GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>
> Immigration policy is one area that exposure to well-presented libertarian
> ideas has had an effect on my thinking over the last ten years. I live in
> one of the most ethnically heterogeneous cities in the US (perhaps in the
> world) and I see signs of the vitality this "people gumbo" brings to my
> community everywhere. Many of these immigrants in Houston are illegal under
> US law. They all seem to be working hard and contributing to the progress of
> the area. Yes, if we opened the borders entirely we'd probably be swamped by
> economic refugees beyond the ability of our infrastructure to respond. But I
> think we could steadily increase the permeability of our borders and still
> maintain our prosperity.
Which I'm all for. Maintaining prosperity is the primary benefit of
encouraging immigration. The points I've been making though have nothing
to do with prosperity, but how immigration without qualification or
without indoctcrination/acculturation of some kind, i.e. citizenship
courses like we see for legal immigrants, an area attracting immigrants
can change the political landscape to the point that a large bloc of
immigrant voters can turn a formerly free nation into the same sort of
oppressive regeimes those immigrants fled from.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:14:14 MDT