A radical case for open borders

Abstract

This chapter argues that immigration policy should be reformed so that there are no quantitative caps on legal migration. It argues that a policy of open borders and free migration would create massive poverty reduction while helping to improve the lives of most of the native born, and that any adverse consequences could be made up for with “keyhole solutions” that leave massive migration flows intact while tweaking policy to deal with specific consequences. It provocatively argues that given the evidence surveyed in the earlier chapters, every major moral theory recommends open borders.