Economic Case: Opening borders would help the world's economy

The argument

Abolishing borders would increase countries' productivity and improve the global economy. Labour is the world's most valued commodity, and people tend to move to where work is available. However, border control prevents people from traveling between countries. Borders restrict capable, talented people in countries with less resources from using their talents in economically productive countries. Immigrants can improve the economy of the country they immigrate to. Immigrants create jobs; one study found that each immigrant in a new economy can create 1.2 jobs for local workers. Open borders would alllow countries' economies to capitalize on people's willingness to migrate, work, and earn higher wages. Advocates for open borders point to a 2011 literature review by Michael Clemens that reviews the possible GDP gains from lessening border restrictions. Clemens found that (depending on economic models) lessened border restrictions, allowing people to move and work in any country they choose would increase global GDP by between 67-147%. Preventing people from moving for better opportunities is a missed opportunity for economic growth. Lessened border restrictions can alleviate world poverty. Workers can earn higher wages when working in a more developed, productive country. This allows workers and migrants to send money to their homes. Increased income going to families in poorer countries can alleviate poverty more effectively than global foreign aid can. We should abolish borders to let countries' economies benefit from people's willingness to work and earn higher wages for their families.

Context

People often migrate in search of better economic prospects. Countries with wealthier and stronger economies attract immigrants who have the resources to travel. Migration can boost a nation's economy by increasing the nation's labor supply. What could happen if workers were free to migrate and work anywhere in the world?

Premises

Counter-arguments

1. Opening borders and letting people move to more productive, richer countries will create more economic problems than benefits. One consequence is a "Brain Drain," where talent from poorer countries pour into richer countries, and as a result, poorer countries no longer have the labor supply or talent to maintain their own economies and infrastructure. 2. Opening borders will endanger existing jobs in the country with an influx of immigrants. Bernie Sanders does not support open borders because an influx of immigrants would decrease opportunities for the American worker. 3. Bringing more migrants into wealthier countries doesn’t stop the wealthier countries from taking advantage of migrants who have more to lose and more at stake. These migrants tend to become part of lower-paid job economies. For example, In Qatar, foreign workers make up 95% of the labor force, but these workers cannot leave their jobs or the country without their employer’s permission. Even if workers from poorer countries freely travel to richer countries for better opportunities, it is likely that the richer countries will capitalize on these migrants' work and still mistreat them.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Productivity is not carried by the worker alone; it depends on the capital, institutions and infrastructure of the place where the work is done. The premise's picture — move the person, keep the gain — overstates what relocation delivers, and says nothing about what an origin country loses when the workers it trained leave. [Rejecting P2] The GDP figures are model outputs resting on strong assumptions, including that the institutions of receiving countries survive migration on that scale unchanged. They describe a world never observed rather than a measured effect. [Rejecting P3] Remittances flow to households, not to the health systems and universities that trained the migrants, and the argument's own framing is compatible with migrants being paid far less than the value they add — as the tied-employment arrangements in some high-migration economies illustrate.