Immigration, again

Charlie linked me to this post over at Classically Liberal, detailing what Milton Friedman actually said about immigration. Interestingly, he explicitly states his support for illegal immigration so long as it remains illegal, the implicit reasoning being that illegal immigrants don't impose burdens via the welfare state, and argues that the ideal immigration situation is that which obtained before 1914- no welfare state, more or less open borders. Friedman was an open borders libertarian, but one probably akin to my co-blogger, worried over the increased burdens created by the combination of poor migrants and our welfare system.



Now, I'm not a big believer in the welfare state, or state action generally, but I have to say that I don't think the costs mass legal immigration would impose via the welfare state outweigh the benefits.



Take Mexico. The median household income in Mexico in 2007 was about $5,000, in the United States it was $31,000 (source: OECD; the figures are converted into 2007 dollars at PPP exchange rates). So if a Mexican family moves here and makes just under half the median income, they will triple their material wellbeing. How much of a burden on the welfare state does it take to overcome that incredible benefit? Another way to ask this might be, how much do you hate Mexicans?



Mexico is not an especially poor country. I couldn't find median household income data for the Congo, but Congolese GNI per capita is a whopping $300, while the same statistic for the United States is $46,360. When you factor in all the nonmaterial benefits that come with moving from the Congo to the United States, the gross utility created by moving Congolese to the United States is immeasurably high. Subtract a bit for an increased burden on social services and you'd still have to really be seething with hatred for black people to oppose letting in all that wanted to come.

(N.B.: This post is one of the posts lost in the Great Blogger Crash of 2011; Bryan also has several showing up in the drafts section now. I'm reposting this one today, so that's why it seems familiar, oh legion of loyal readers.)