Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Military Veteran Rios Challenging Costa for Congress in 2026

12 hours ago

OpenAI to Release Web Browser in Challenge to Google Chrome

13 hours ago

Fuel Shortage Threatens to Turn Gaza’s Biggest Hospital Into Graveyard, Doctors Say

13 hours ago

Why Measure C Is Not Measured

13 hours ago
Immigration Done Right? It Brings Peace & Prosperity
Inside-Sources
By InsideSources.com
Published 7 years ago on
February 14, 2018

Share

For the last several years, the United States has been gripped in a sharp debate over the flow of immigrants into our country. It is easy to get demoralized about the inability to reach a consensus, but understanding the complexity of the challenge could help us appreciate what stands in the way of reform — and what needs to happen before change can occur.


Opinion
James F. Hollifield
And make no mistake: We must resolve these issues if we are to experience a virtuous cycle of greater openness, wealth and human development, rather than falling back into a vicious cycle that leads the world into greater anarchy, poverty, disorder and war.
Every day, tens of millions of people cross borders, adding up to roughly 2 billion annually. Managing those flows is a huge challenge for nation-states, whose governments must make choices about who can enter — and exit — and on what terms. This is where politics enters the equation.
How well powerful nations like the United States and Germany, regional organizations like the European Union, and the international community manage migration will determine whether the world remains open and prosperous or falls back into poverty and war.

How to Reap Benefits of Immigration

To reap the benefits of immigration, such as new sources of human capital and labor, nation-states must accept the long-term costs of social integration, the short-term fiscal burdens of concentrated immigrant populations in some regions and localities, and the security costs that come with living in an age of drug cartels and domestic and international terrorism. The strong feelings on all sides of those issues make it painstakingly hard to create actual policies.
Liberal democracies also must contend with the rights of migrants, including their legalization, naturalization and citizenship. It is one thing to need foreign labor, but is it right to admit foreign workers without granting them protections against exploitation?
This is another place where so much of our nation’s debate has stalled, especially when it comes to determining whether unauthorized immigrants should have a shot at legalization. Until we find a way to legalize their status, we risk undermining a social contract that extends rights in return for labor and long-term residence.

The United States Is Not Alone in Immigration Debate

The United States is not the only free society that faces this dilemma. The economic need for openness versus the political and legal pressures for a closed society are what I call the “liberal paradox.” Dynamic economies need immigrant labor, and open societies are stronger than closed societies. But openness comes with a price. We must be willing to grant foreign workers and their families a basic package of human and civil rights that enables them to flourish, settle and become full members of our society.

The immigration policy game, which Tip O’Neill once likened to “political death,” involves tradeoffs between markets, rights, culture and security.
The policy game becomes infinitely more complex when a country feels threatened, physically or culturally. In times of war and political crisis, a focus on markets and rights gives way to a concern about culture and security. This is what has happened in the first year of the Trump administration and in recent years in Europe.
President Trump’s immigration and refugee policy, for example, is couched in cultural, ethnic and civilizational terms. Christians and Jews are pitted against Muslims, and Mexicans and Hispanics are pitted against whites. Symbolic and racial politics allow him to shore up elements of his political base, but the president has created a perfect storm of opposition to his policies at the international, national, state and local levels.

Tradeoffs in Immigration Policy

The immigration policy game, which Tip O’Neill once likened to “political death,” involves tradeoffs between markets, rights, culture and security. All these factors combine to make immigration reform difficult, but pressures to modernize immigration systems are only going to mount. That’s because international migration will likely increase in coming decades.
A cataclysmic international event, like a war or depression, could change that forecast, but even after 9/11 and the Great Recession, the United States still admits more than 1 million immigrants annually. And despite Europe’s debt crisis, 2.4 million people immigrated to the EU in 2015 from non-EU countries. Growing demand for basic manpower and fierce competition for the highly skilled worker, when coupled with a demographic decline in the receiving countries, have created economic opportunities for migrants.
The extension of rights to migrants also has become an important part of the immigration story. If a migrant can establish some claim to residence in a liberal state, his or her chances of being able to remain and settle will increase. Witness Central American children arriving at the U.S./Mexico border, surrendering to border control agents, and immediately requesting asylum.
How well powerful nations like the United States and Germany, regional organizations like the European Union, and the international community manage migration will determine whether the world remains open and prosperous or falls back into poverty and war. As states struggle to meet this challenge, which remains a fundamental feature of our world, they must keep balancing security, economic, legal and foreign policy interests. They are likely to continue to encounter a liberal paradox as they do.

About the Author

James F. Hollifield is a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, where he serves as director of the Tower Center for Political Studies. A longer version of this essay in “The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute.” InsideSources.com provided this piece.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

UP NEXT

Fresno County Man Sentenced to 13 Years in Fiery DUI Crash That Killed One, Injured Several

Hiker Rescued by Helicopter After Injury on Pacific Crest Trail in Kern County

8 hours ago

US Military Delivering Some Weapons to Ukraine After Pause

8 hours ago

US Lawmakers Renew Concerns About GenScript’s Ties to China

The U.S. House of Representatives committee on China on Tuesday sent a letter to the directors of the FBI and national intelligence, renewin...

6 hours ago

U.S. and Chinese flags are seen in this illustration created on March 20, 2025. (Reuters File)
6 hours ago

US Lawmakers Renew Concerns About GenScript’s Ties to China

7 hours ago

Fresno County Man Sentenced to 13 Years in Fiery DUI Crash That Killed One, Injured Several

7 hours ago

‘Hollywood-Level Scares’ at Immersive Horror Attraction Coming to Fresno This Halloween

A hiker with an ankle injury was rescued by helicopter after becoming stranded on a steep slope along the Pacific Crest Trail near Rosamond, authorities said. (Kern County SO)
8 hours ago

Hiker Rescued by Helicopter After Injury on Pacific Crest Trail in Kern County

The Ukrainian and U.S. national flags fly outside a building, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
8 hours ago

US Military Delivering Some Weapons to Ukraine After Pause

A Qantas plane is seen at a domestic terminal at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, November 16, 2020. (Reuters File)
8 hours ago

Qantas Confirms Personal Data of Over a Million Customers Leaked in Breach

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. (Reuters File)
8 hours ago

US Sanctions UN Expert Critical of Israel’s War in Gaza

A structure fire in Coarsegold has spread to nearby vegetation, prompting road closures and evacuation warnings for multiple zones in Madera County. (Madera County SO)
8 hours ago

Madera County Structure Fire Spreads to Vegetation in Coarsegold Area, Evacuations Ordered

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend