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Solving the Misesian migration conundrum

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Abstract

This paper reviews Ludwig Von Mises’ concerns surrounding unrestricted immigration and relates them to the current debate surrounding immigrants’ impact on destination countries’ institutions. It then outlines a policy of generally unrestricted immigration with selective restrictions that addresses Mises’ concerns and concerns about destination country institutions, while still achieving the majority of the economic gains that unrestricted immigration is forecast to achieve.

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Notes

  1. See Hall and Lawson (2014) for a survey of this vast literature.

  2. See Lawson et al. (2018) for a survey on the determinants of economic freedom.

  3. Of course, narrow specific prohibitions already exist in most immigration policies. For example, prohibiting the immigration of known terrorists or people with contagious diseases. Ideally, all restrictions would be at the individual level. However, the threat that Mises articulates, and the threat via institutional change, comes via large numbers of similar immigrants, not any particular individual on the margin.

  4. This includes immigrants from countries that have declared themselves Islamic states, states where the official religion is Islam, and secular states where the majority of the population is Islamic.

  5. GDP Per Capita (PPP) are from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators Online based on 2017 figures (World Bank 2018).

  6. Though, by their demonstrated preference for moving to Europe, their real subjective well being would not be increased as much.

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  1. Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Benjamin Powell

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  1. Benjamin Powell
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Correspondence to Benjamin Powell.

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I thank the participants at the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics panel at the Southern Economic Association 2018 conference for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Powell, B. Solving the Misesian migration conundrum. Rev Austrian Econ 32, 205–213 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-019-0434-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-019-0434-y

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