Trade And Immigration
Published: August 2, 2017
Trade and immigration are good for the U.S. economy. Free trade allows Americans to buy better goods at lower prices and provides bigger markets where we can sell our own goods. More immigration leads to economic growth and improvements in our standard of living. The logic that isolation and protectionism will create more American jobs is misguided and detrimental to economic growth.
Discussion Questions
- Why does the United States currently favor family reunification over employment when it comes to permanent residency limits?
- Why is there an anti-immigration sentiment when immigration is promoting economic growth?
- What can we do to preserve our current trade policy?
Additional Resources
- Read John Cochrane’s chapter “Trade and Immigration” in Blueprint for America here.
- You can find the rest of Blueprint for America here.
- For more on trade from John Cochrane, click here.
- For more on immigration from John Cochrane, click here.
Free trade and more immigration are good for the US economy.
The more people we’re connected to, the more our economy can grow.
Closing borders to people and good is not the path to prosperity.
Recent anti-trade and anti-immigration rhetoric won’t change the two and a half centuries of positive experience.
We have to remember that trade isn’t a competition - it happens because each side benefits.
The fact that United States runs a trade deficit with many countries, importing more than it exports, is not a cause for concern. After all, each and every one of us runs a trade deficit with our grocery store because we only buy, or import grocery, and never sell, or export, to the store.
Trade is cooperation and the logic that less trade will create more American jobs is false, plain and simple.
Freer trade means better and cheaper goods for you.
Anytime trade is restricted, it forces you to buy potentially inferior items at a higher price from an American seller even though a better version might be available at a lower price from a seller outside the US.
Trade policy needs only one rule: Americans can buy anything they want from anywhere in world without restrictions.
Thankfully, trade is already quite free, so we just need to preserve what we have.
Immigration, on the other hand, faced many restrictions even though it’s an enduring source of economic prosperity for America.
Small, sensible reforms would lead to large gains for our economy.
Many foreign entrepreneurs want to come to America, get an education, start businesses, and importantly, create jobs and pay taxes.
These immigrants want to work and build a better life just like our ancestors did.
Their pursuit of happiness and prosperity builds up our country and the American way of life.
The historical openness of the United States to trade and immigration has helped much of the world escape grinding poverty.
Continued free trade and immigration is the best foreign aid we can offer while also benefitting American citizens through better goods and faster economic growth.