The United States had free immigration throughout the 19th century, and up until World War I really. But that was possibly because the United States was not a welfare state. When my parents came to the Untied States at the end of the 19th century, they didnt get any welfare when they got here. They were able to exist by the charity of relatives who had come here earlier. They were able to make their way in a free market, and therefore people only came here, people came to the United States to use their resources and their capacities, and were productive and help themselves and help the rest of the people who were here. But, if you have a welfare state, in which immigrants, as now, are eligible to receive relief, to receive benefits and so on, you have people immigrating, not in order to use their resources in a productive way, but as it were to be parasites on the rest of the society. And unfortunately, there are an infinite supply of people who want to live on someone elses expense. And so, the result of that is unfortunately completely free immigration, in my opinion, in a welfare state. --Milton Friedman
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 13:52:14 +0000