Sunday, May 20, 2018

Libertarianism and Open Borders


There are some who think of themselves as Minimal Government Libertarians who nonetheless believe in restrictive immigration policy, or, at least, are perfectly happy to vote for politicians committed to such policies. On its face, this is inconsistent. Restrictive immigration is state use of force and coercion to keep people from going where they would go and from entering into labor contracts that both sides would enthusiastically execute. Libertarians are great friends of labor contracts, condemning such government interferences as minimum wage and overtime laws. You can’t have a free market in labor without open borders. So how can any libertarian have anything to do with a restrictive immigration policy?