Read this book

Open Borders is a bold case for opening all borders to immigration, told in a graphic novel-style format.

Written by economist Bryan Caplan, it builds upon fact after fact to promote the benefits of, and counters all common arguments against, letting more people from more countries live and work wherever they want to.

Everything from “We don’t have enough room for everyone” to “They’d just expect welfare” to “But what about terrorism?” and much more is exhaustively addressed, using hard, verifiable numbers.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how Caplan explains in pretty granular detail that no matter what your religious/ethical and political leanings are, opening borders is the right thing to do.

He does grant there are a couple of aspects of the concept that aren’t as rosy as other parts are–to be as universally beneficial as possible, for instance, migrants need to be in their early adulthood in order to get the most of their working life in a country, to both reap its myriad benefits and pay taxes back into the system; as they get older and toward retirement, they’re more financially negative to a country than positive–but he points out that even what few demonstrable drawbacks there are can be dealt with in numerous ways and are minimal compared to the overall benefits of open borders.

Open Borders makes a solid argument that, even taking possible downsides into account, allowing open immigration to all first-world countries would hugely benefit all parties involved.

Highly recommended to (as it did with me) open your mind to new possibilities.