Does immigration hurt natives?

Immigration and Economic Freedom

by Ilya Somin

Immigrants are a growing part of the British population, accounting for nearly all of its net growth in recent years. They also play a vital and increasingly important role in the economy. Yet political leaders across the political spectrum have increasingly sought to curb immigration, as much of public opinion sees it as an unnecessary burden on Britain’s economy and society.

The debate over immigration is often seen as pitting the rights and interests of migrants against those of native-born residents of receiving countries. But, in reality, migration restrictions inflict great harm on the latter, as well as the former. That is particularly true of natives’ economic liberty, including both the libertarian (or classical liberal) ‘negative’ view of economic freedom, and the more ‘positive’ vision advanced by left-liberals.

As explained in my new IEA paper, immigration restrictions severely undermine both types of economic liberty. That does not, by itself, prove that all such restrictions should be abolished. But it does strengthen the case for abolition, or at least reduction. The issue is not just that migration restrictions reduce the economic liberty of natives, but that they do so on a vast scale – far more than is conventionally recognised.