Salter: Don't fear the Californians coming to Texas
Many Californians are moving to Texas, which has many native Texans worried. The Texas model of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and a light regulatory touch has produced great economic prosperity. California, in contrast, is stagnating: activist government and incomprehensible regulations are driving labor and capital out of the state, shrinking the tax base. Won’t all these Californians coming to Texas bring their preferences for nanny-statism with them? Perhaps we should think twice before we let in migrants with very different beliefs and cultures from our own…and think three times before we let them vote.
It sounds compelling. There’s just one problem: Our mental model of emigrant Californians is all wrong. We have pretty good data on the political preferences of Californians seeking greener pastures in Texas, as well as similar states like Florida and Iowa. As it turns out, California’s “economic migrants” are much more supportive of limited government and free markets than native Texans! Just look at their voting patterns in recent elections. The whole reason they’re leaving is because they want more freedom, not less. If liberty-loving Texans are wise, they will welcome West Coast expatriates with open arms.
What’s true about migration within the country is true about migration into the country. For all its faults, the United States is a bastion of freedom and tolerance. Millions of people from places like Cuba and Venezuela want to come here and would if they could. In contrast, very few Americans want to put down roots in Caracas or Havana. The reason is obvious: liberty works, tyranny doesn’t. Immigration is a filter that selects for those chasing the American dream.
Immigration should be a primary issue for those who believe in freedom. Mankind’s natural rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” imply the right to earn a living with willing employers and raise a family with willing neighbors. It’s wrong to use the coercive power of government to prevent those seeking a better life from finding it here.
America has always been a beacon for the rest of the world. Our way of life attracts those yearning for freedom. Those who risk the difficult (and often life-threatening) journey to get here aren’t looking to go on the dole. They’re looking for independence, responsibility, and industry. We should help them.
Many American citizens, especially Texans, are watching the crisis at our border with alarm. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is overwhelmed. They’ve encountered more than 2 million immigrants crossing the border this year alone. It’s reasonable to wonder whether we have the capacity for much larger immigration levels. Despite appearances, we do. The disaster of our immigration system is a policy choice. We can and must fix it.
Our current policy combines the worst of both worlds: tight restrictions with lax enforcement. This is why so many criminal enterprises (traffickers, drug dealers, etc.) are thriving. Since coming here legally is too difficult, those desperate for a better life in America must rely on those with specialized skills in evading and resisting law enforcement to get them across the border. The results, mass lawlessness and overwhelmed border communities, are as predictable as they are tragic.
Sensible reforms would make it much easier to live and work here. CBP needs more resources for monitoring, processing, and enforcement. Local communities, from Rio Grande City to El Paso, need upgraded infrastructure to ensure basic services and commodities provision. But it must be done with a view to increasing immigration, not restricting it. The only way to make migrant-friendly policies politically viable is to promote a system capable of handling much larger volumes of immigration in a safe and orderly manner.
I can already hear the objections. Immigrants commit more crime! No, they don't. Immigrant crime is much less frequent than native crime. Immigrants take native jobs and lower native wages! No, they don’t. Immigrant labor and native labor are largely complements, not substitutes. Immigrants abuse the welfare system! No, they don’t. The costs of providing federal entitlements to immigrants is substantially lower than natives. It’s reasonable to work for a better system to distribute the costs and benefits of immigration more equitably. But it’s not reasonable to exaggerate the costs and diminish the benefits, using these as an excuse for inaction.
We have nothing to fear from immigration and everything to gain. Immigrants strengthen our nation economically and politically. Welcoming them is an obvious boon for liberty. Offering freedom-seekers across the world a safe haven is one of America’s oldest and best traditions. Let’s all remember the words inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Alexander William Salter is the Georgie G. Snyder Associate Professor of Economics in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, a research fellow with TTU’s Free Market Institute, and a community member of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s editorial board. The views in this column are solely his own.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Salter: Don't fear the Californians coming to Texas
