From Deseret News archives:
The value of immigration
Simply put, it is this: The flow of workers from poor to rich countries is a good thing.
Naturally, the rich nations need to find ways to control and monitor this flow, preferably through the use of guest-worker permits. But global migration is a good thing, not a drain.
That's the same message economist Lant Pritchett has been spreading since leaving the World Bank. Pritchett, like Jones, once studied at BYU. His belief is that one day the world will understand the value of labor migration the way a lot of people now understand the value of free trade.
A 2005 World Bank report said the 30 richest countries of the world could provide the equivalent of $300 billion in real and effective aid to the citizens of poor countries if they would only loosen their immigration restrictions. That aid would come to those people in the form of money earned from jobs. By comparison, those countries now hand out a combined $70 billion in aid to poor countries. That money comes from taxpayers and provides little, if any, real benefit.
By now the value of free trade ought to be beyond question. The North American Free Trade Agreement, for instance, has tripled the amount of trade among member nations, according to figures from the office of the U.S. trade representative. During that time, unemployment has gone down in the United States, wages have increased and both manufacturing and agriculture have benefitted.
There is no reason to doubt that the free and orderly movement of laborers among nations would be any less beneficial. The sooner more leaders in the United States understand this the way Jones does, the better.
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