DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images
Why do you think open borders are a good idea? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists, writer at The Correspondent, on Quora:
A mountain of scientific evidence shows that immigration is the most powerful weapon we have in the fight against global poverty. Four different studies have shown that, depending on the level of movement in the global labor market, the estimated growth in “gross worldwide product” would be in the range of 67% to 147%. Effectively, open borders would make the whole world twice as rich.
I understand that arguing in favor of immigration is not going to make you very popular these days. But as a historian, it’s easy to see that immigration is one of the most important drivers of prosperity in world history - from the Roman Empire to the United States. And many of the arguments against it (‘they’ll take our jobs’, ‘they are too lazy to work’, ‘they’re all criminals’ - etc.) are factually incorrect.
Immigrants are often very productive and entrepreneurial and are actually job creators. People making a new life in the U.S. commit fewer offenses and less frequently end up in prison than the native population. Immigration has virtually no effect on the wages of the native population. There’s no evidence that immigrants are more likely to apply for assistance than native citizens. In reality, if you correct for income and job status, immigrants take less advantage of the welfare state.
Obviously, you can’t win this debate by just churning out facts like these. It’s really important to develop a different story around immigration. A country that is proud of itself, of its own heritage and traditions, a country that doesn’t lack self-confidence will also be open to others.
It’s the same with individuals: if you’re confident of who you are, you will be open to new experiences. But if you’re insecure, don’t know who you are and where you want to go, you will probably be hostile to others as well. It doesn’t surprise me that there’s a rise in xenophobia and right-wing populism in a time when the centre has no ideology anymore, no new utopian visions.
This is why I wrote my book ‘Utopia for Realists’: we’ve achieved a lot in the past, but the problem today is that we don’t know where to go next. It’s time for a new Utopia for the 21st century.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: