The case for (and against) open borders

Worldly

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2018

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Future Perfect, Vox’s Dylan Matthews tackles provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world – ideas like opening up our borders. One of the most reliable, best-documented ways to lift someone in a poor country out of poverty is to let them come to the US (or another rich country). That’s the argument made by Fabio Rojas, a self-described advocate of open borders. "Open borders" is often used as a punching bag by immigration opponents, but Rojas argues it could dramatically reduce poverty without costing Americans jobs. Leon Fresco works to help get real immigration legislation passed. He's very skeptical. Find Future Perfect on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | ART19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	But this week.
0:01.7	We're actually having an episode from Future Perfect,
0:04.6	a Vox podcast hosted by my colleague and one of my best friends, Dylan Matthews.
0:10.0	Future Perfect is about ideas that could radically change how we do good around the world.
0:15.2	This week's episode I think will be especially interesting for worldly listeners because it's all
0:19.4	about the borders between countries.
0:21.6	I start with a very intuitive example. This is
0:24.4	Fabio Rojas, a sociologist. I lived in Chicago when I went to graduate school
0:29.0	there and every day thousands upon thousands of people from Indiana
0:34.1	and Wisconsin would travel to work in Chicago.
0:37.6	And you'd say, that's all right.
0:39.4	It's OK if somebody comes to Chicago to get a job. Who are we to tell somebody that
0:45.1	traveling from Indiana to Chicago is a bad thing? They should decide for
0:49.0	themselves. However, we don't apply the same logic or reason when we think about people from other countries.
0:56.0	Why is it bad that a person from Canada or Germany or Mexico should come to our country. From the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is Future Perfect,
1:08.0	a podcast where we look at big problems through the lens of effective altruism.
1:12.0	I'm Dylan Matthews. through the efficient ways to do it.
1:28.0	One idea that seems low cost, at least on its surface, open borders.
1:30.0	As in anyone who wants to come into the US can come in.
1:34.0	It doesn't matter where they're from.
1:36.0	They have a standing invitation.
1:40.0	It sounds like a radical idea in a country that's debating whether it's okay to separate immigrant parents from their kids.
	...

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