Open borders from a liberal -- Joe Rizoli opinions 1

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Date Posted: 23:38:46 02/17/14 Mon
Author: Joe Rizoli (Great arguments)
Author Host/IP: 146.115.156.139
Subject: Open borders from a liberal

Great article about open borders. The article is 13 pages. Here is page one.

http://mises.org/journals/jls/13_2/13_2_3.pdf

A LIBERTARIAN ARGUMENT AGAINST OPEN BORDERS

John Hospers*

It is l939, and a ship filled with refugees from Nazi Germany tries to dock, first in Miami, then in Havana, but it is not per- mitted to dock. The ship returns to Germany, with death as a result for most of the refugees. In l995, the U.S. Coast Guard for- ces a group of escapees from Cuba back onto the ships of the Cu- ban authorities, sealing the fate of those who were trying to find freedom in the United States. Of course, neither of these ships should have been stopped.

It is easy to generalize from such cases to the conclusion that everyone who wishes to come to the United States should be per- mitted to do so, and indeed, this conclusion has been supported by many people in the libertarian movement; it is called the policy of “open borders.” I believe that such a generalization is mistak- en.

Do the proponents of this view intend to include all persons wishing to enter any country? If so, it would imply that Israel should be committed to a policy of open borders for Palestinians, which would surely involve intense armed conflict. Is the “open borders” policy to be carried out for any person in any nation no matter what the conditions? Doesn’t it depend on what those conditions are?

Sometimes, however, libertarians limit the application of this view to the United States; at any rate, the examples they give are usually limited to the United States, although it is not clear why their suggested policy should be so restricted. Why should a general principle be confined in its application to one particular nation or locality?

In their attempt to defend the “open borders” policy, some libertarians allege that all people have two rights with regard to immigration. First, they have the right to leave any country they want to leave. (Presumably this includes the proviso, “if

*John Hospers is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Southern California, and currently teaches philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of several books, including Human Conduct, Introduction to Philosophical Analysis, Understanding the Arts, and Meaning and Truth in the Arts. He has also edited three anthologies. In 1972, he was the Libertarian Party’s first can- didate for U.S. president (and received an electoral vote in that election), as well as the author of the Party’s Statement of Principles.

Journal of Libertarian Studies 13:2 (Summer 1998): 153–165 ©1998 Center for Libertarian Studies

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