Immigration 2: The Human Resource

As I argued yesterday, the right to freedom of movement, i.e., immigration, is crucial to all our other rights. Indeed, we recognize this as a fundamental right within Canada—government cannot prevent us from moving to Alberta. How then can to be proper to withhold such a right from non-Canadians? It is in the nature of a human right that it is inalienable.

Moreover, historically, it is the societies that most allowed mobility that first and most solidly developed democratic and liberal traditions—precisely because of this freedom of movement. I cited the US and Britain. I might also have mentioned Greece, the proverbial cradle of democracy, a nation of sea traders who colonized the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins. I might have mentioned the nations of Scandinavia, including Iceland, home of the oldest surviving Parliament—a nation of seafarers who colonized across Europe and as far as America. Or the Medieval Republic of Venice.

Yes, I know what you are thinking: all very well in theory, but what about the starving yellow hordes that will descend on us and use up all our resources?

I don’t think that’s any more than a bogeyman. I believe, contrary to current common opinion, that open immigration benefits all economically.

We have been duped, in recent years, into the counter-intuitive notion that there is such a thing as “overpopulation,” and even that it is a pressing problem. The idea is that, with too many people, the resources will run out, or there will not be enough of them to go around.

What we do not realize is that human beings are the most valuable resource. Without them, not much else ever gets done. It is people that give gold value, not gold that gives people value.

Nations once knew that, and were happy to welcome new subjects. China, for example, historically pursued a one-way open-door policy. Immigrants were welcome; but emigrants were not. This, and not Western prejudices, is the real reason for the old Chinese “head tax.” It was required by the Chinese, not the Canadian, government. When the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci arrived from the West, he entered Beijing on the understanding that, once in, he could never leave. Human beings were just too valuable. Would you let your cattle stray into the next field?

We are misled, in part, by the recent spectacle of starvation in big, densely populated countries like China and India. But, whatever caused that, it was a temporary anomaly: historically, China and India have always been more densely populated than most of the rest of the world, and have always save the last century or two also been world economic leaders. And their dense populations, their vast supply of labour, seem to be exactly what is pulling them both back up into contention now. Sparsely-populated Mongolia, oddly, is doing rather less well.

Let’s look at other historical—and current—examples. Whenever you find a significantly prosperous society, you find one of two things: either a dense population, or an open door to immigration. Either are valuable for the same reason: they provide deep pools of human intelligence, and of human enterprise, for development.

Obvious current examples: the US and Singapore, built on open immigration. It is less obvious, but equally true, that Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Dubai are also immigrant societies. Germany and Japan are world leaders in population density. Britain, in its heyday during the Industrial Revolution, was the most densely populated place in Europe. The Netherlands, in its heyday a century or two earlier, was both very densely populated and open to immigrants from across Europe. South Korea is, by some measures, the most densely populated sizeable nation in the world.

And backwards into history: Rome was distinctive in having (relatively) open citizenship. The Greeks were a race of immigrants, spreading colonies by sea across the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins. Both were essentially immigrant cultures.

Similarly, and rather obviously, within individual nations, which areas tend to be most prosperous? Those with the densest population—the big cities—or those with the least—the remote countryside? New York City, or rural Mississippi? Toronto, or rural Saskatchewan? And even more interesting, don’t the more recently settled—British Columbia, Alberta, California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada—also seem to be somewhat more prosperous on the whole than the oldest-settled areas--Newfoundland, the Maritimes, New England (outside immigrant Boston), Virginia?

Of course, this general pattern can be distorted by the presence of extremely valuable resources. But do resources matter nearly so much as how humans use them? Dubai, for example, has little oil, but is the wealthiest point in the Persian Gulf. Japan and South Korea have almost no natural resources; North Korea and the Philippines are rich in them.

There is also, granted, a question of which here is cause, and which effect: obviously, once a place becomes prosperous, this prosperity is itself a draw increasing the flow of immigration, hence population. Fair enough; but this may also merely mask from us the true value of immigration and of a larger population.

Why wouldn’t immigration make us more prosperous? Those who worry about immigrants taking away jobs forget one thing: everyone is both a producer and a consumer. Any new immigrants will also create new jobs to meet their own needs—jobs that otherwise would have gone overseas. If a free flow of labour also makes us more competitive in world terms—which seems to be history’s lesson—there will be more work for everyone. Those who worry about immigrants exhausting social services must remember that every new immigrant is also a taxpayer. While there may be a gap, between use of and contribution to these services, it cannot be assumed.