Immigration Tariffs Make Good Economic Sense

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Immigration Tariffs Make Good Economic Sense Emigrants moving to wealthier countries have historically been able to do so at very little or no cost. This has led to inefficiency in the allocation of resources. As Economist Gary Becker stated in his lecture to the Institute of Economic Affairs, there would be economic gains to be made by imposing an immigration tariff on immigrants who are granted work visas by the wealthy nations of the world. The economic concepts involved in Mr. Becker’s proposal include the basic principles of supply and demand, opportunity cost, and human capital. He proposes to create a market within the immigration systems of wealthier countries. Persons and families who are immigrating to wealthier countries are currently able to exploit an incredible opportunity at very little cost. Subsequently, this low opportunity cost of immigration has created a very high demand and an inefficient allocation of the resource--H1B work visas. Under the current quota-limit system, work visas are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis to qualifying applicants. Thus, causing the limited annual quota of visas (one million per year) to be quickly and arbitrarily allocated at the beginning of each year. Immigration is being controlled by quantity limits rather than price. A higher price attached to immigration would weed out many of those individuals who are likely to become burdens to the welfare and healthcare systems by shifting to an area on the demand curve in which the younger, skilled, and more dedicated people would be willing to pay for entry based on their higher level of potential gain. The level of human capital would be increased because a hefty tariff on immigration would help to ensure that persons entering the country would have a more vested interest in becoming successful and productive members of society. As a result,
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