Per Bylund: Refugees, Property Rights, and Open Borders

Our guest this weekend is Professor Per Bylund, whose article on immigration elicited plenty of discussion on mises.org and social media earlier this week. Dr. Bylund argues that property rights, not government immigration policies, should serve as the natural regulator of immigration and human movement. Since the state is never legitimate, “open borders” is conceptually irrelevant. Our focus as libertarians should be on property, freedom of association, and the equally important freedom of dissociation. Migrants do not enjoy unbridled freedom of movement when such movement becomes a matter of trespass.

We discuss several arguments made by Hans Hermann Hoppe regarding externalities caused by forced integration and “public lands.” As usual, the problem lies with states themselves: disruptive wars and bad economic policies cause tremendous human dislocations, while welfare state incentives encourage immigration for the wrong reasons.

If you’re interested in the divisive topic of immigration from a libertarian perspective, stay tuned.