New at Cato Unbound: Mexicans in America

by Will Wilkinson on August 14, 2006

Don’t miss the new Cato Unbound featuring this morning’s lead essay by Richard Rodriguez.

Americans have tended to abrogate to economists the question of the costs and the benefits of illegal immigration. But, surely, beyond how much Betsy Ross is willing to pay for a head of lettuce, there is the question of morality, there is the question of Mexico. How much of Mexico are we willing to take within our borders? I believe the question might better be asked of a theologian, than an economist.

Rodriguez is no theologian, but he gives it a shot. Watch out for Victor Davis Hanson’s reply Wednesday. He’s not thrilled with Rodriguez.

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    In the long run, the OTM (Other-than Mexican) immigration problem will dwarf the Mexican immigration problem.

    Libertarians need to grasp the following facts:

    According to the CIA World Factbook, the total population of people living in countries poorer than Mexico is up to 5,043,000,000. That's 77% of the world's 6,525,000,000 population.

    Almost three billion people (2,965,000,000), or 45% of the world, live in countries with less than half of Mexico's $10,000 per capita GDP.

    An extraordinary 85% of the world's children ages 0-14 live in countries poorer than Mexico (1,528,000,000 out of 1,789,000).

    Compared to Mexico's 33 million children ages 0-14, countries poorer than Mexico have 47 times as many children.

    India has ten times as many children, China eight times as many, and Pakistan three times as many. Indonesia has almost twice as many children, Nigeria 1.7 times as many, and Bangladesh and Brazil 1.7 times as many. Ethiopia, the Congo, and the Philippines have almost exactly the same number as Mexico.

    It's likely that you have to be fairly close to as rich as Mexico to get a big flow of illegal immigrants going, as Brazil has begun recently. Of course, if the Senate's guest worker program passes, we'll start seeing a big influx from places like Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, followed by illegal immigrants coming to stay with their legal relatives.
 

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