Now the economists have calculated, it’s a back-of-the-envelope-calculation, that removing all immigration controls would double the size of the world economy, and even a small relaxation of immigration controls would lead to dis-proportionally big gains.
Now for an ethical point of view, it is hard to argue against a policy that will do so much to help people that are much poorer than ourselves. The famous Rand Study reckons that a typical immigrant who arrives in the US ended up with $20,000 a year, that’s rough. It’s not just the migrants themselves who gain, it’s the countries they come from. Already, the migrants workers from poor countries working in rich countries send home around 200 billion dollars a year, through formal channels, and about twice as that through informal channels. And that compares to the neat a hundred million dollars that western governments give in aid. These remittances are not wasted on weapons or siphoned of into Swiss bank accounts; they go straight into the pockets of local people. They pay for food, clean water, and medicines, they help kids in school, they help start up new business.
Significantly focusing on the fact of immigration control and it comprises that immigration stimulates economic growth. Additionally, it also denotes that migrant workers send billions of dollars to their home countries via both formal and informal channels. Financial remittance lift families out of poverty, improve health and nutrition conditions, increase education opportunities for children, as well as promote entrepreneurship in their home countries.
