Open Borders Philanthropy Bleg

I’ve thought about this question and I don’t think there are great options. There are definitely pro-immigrant groups you could volunteer for, but there are few open borders groups that take volunteers.

To be honest, probably one of the best pro-immigrant groups is the Catholic church, particularly Catholic refugee services. You can volunteer in helping new refugees get adjusted to the United States and helping them to learn English. Obviously, if you’re not Catholic, then this may not be your thing. And, while pro-immigrant, the Catholic church does not explicitly endorse open borders.

Groups that require money rather than time include Migrant Offshore Aid Station, which rescues refugees in the Mediterranean. There are of course the ideological organizations that do promote broadly open immigration, such as CATO. But, again, they don’t need volunteers as far as I know.

You should take a look at the book Doing Good Better by Will MacAskill, which has a short section on how to promote more immigration.

Immediately, I’d think that volunteering in the campaign of a House or Senate candidate who supports more immigration would help.

Start working for Uber. Meet people, be productive, talk about freedom, keep copies of M. Friedman, Bastiat and Hayek for the passengers to collect.

If the goal is to actually accomplish open borders (or free trade) then the best solution is to go after the underlying causes of the resistance. And that is the highly interventionist government regulations of labor and businesses that inhibits business/job creation and innovation. If you open up the business creation, you will do a lot to degrade the opposition to more labor (or trade).

See this list on the regulatory categories that just inhibit hiring and wages from Coyote Blog.

If politicians want to know why lower-skilled laborers struggle to find employment, they need to look past imports from China and Mexican immigration and look at their own policies that are making it more and more expensive for businesses to hire people in this country. I have written about this many times before, but some of the most prominent include:

So if you really want to support open immigration, the best way is to work to push back the job-killing regulations.

I recommend this article from 1908 on the immigration problem. It gives perspective devoid of the idealization the history teachers have applied. But the author, the Chief Clerk of the US Census Office, also foresees when open immigration will become a problem as it is now framed.

It is unlikely that our portals, thus far ever open to the aliens of all Europe, will be closed to them until it has been conclusively shown that the existence of the nation is imperilled by their coming, or until large numbers of worthy and industrious American citizens are obviously deprived of their means of livelihood by the arriving throngs of foreigners. At the present time there is nothing which points to the realization of these conditions; and, until there is, discussion concerning the restriction is in reality idle. Therefore let us be practical, nursing no delusions, and face conditions as they are. We have always needed the immigrant to aid us in amassing wealth, and we shall need him in the future, for the United States has now become the great labor mart of the world.

In the years to come, the increasing effect of immigration will doubtless appear in changed customs, realignment of religious beliefs, and some variation in national and political ideals– in fact, in the establishment of a new and composite civilization.

Why is the American electorate obligated to open their markets to anyone?

In NYC I’d recommend Atlas:DIY. They work with undocumented immigrant children and help them through social events, safe spaces, legal aid, tutoring, etc.

Most of the kids have walked through hell, either by virtue of the brutal discrimination and poverty they’ve faced (for basically their whole lives) or because they were trafficked, abandoned, victims of crime, etc.

Not exactly open borders advocacy, but at least you’re offsetting the effects of closed border policies. And seeing just how brutal said policies are up close.

At a minimum, you could do a fundraiser for them.

@MikeP They aren’t; foreign states control that.

John Alcorn,

I concur with your quibble and disagree with Pritchett’s stated notion that citizens have a property right to their country.

Citizens have a property right to citizenship, can limit it, can limit the control of it (i.e., the franchise), can limit particular entitlements to it (e.g., welfare), etc. But the country itself is governed by the government or citizenry: it is not owned.

To take the hard and fast position that citizens have a property right to the country is a terrible start to any policy making — placing the property rights of every citizen and resident under the pleasure of the government — much less immigration policy making.

The meaningful difference is that government has no legitimate authority beyond compelling public interest to abrogate individual rights of travel, residence, employment, and association by restricting free migration. It is legitimate to prohibit entry of those who are provably a threat to the public, namely terrorists, foreign agents, violent felons, or carriers of contagion. But restricting immigration by quota, duration, employment permissions, or the like is an act of abrogating individual rights rather than securing them.

In contrast, government does have the legitimate authority to mediate citizenship by, for example, restricting naturalization, limiting voting, walling off welfare, etc., of anyone it wishes.

The bottom line is that migration, travel, contract, association, etc., are unalienable rights that precede and supersede government powers. Citizenship, on the other hand, is an artifact and construct of government that wouldn’t exist without government: it is not an unalienable right.

Javier wrote:

There are definitely pro-immigrant groups you could volunteer for, but there are few open borders groups that take volunteers.

Not sure I follow. Surely no open borders group can exclude people from entering?

Bryan, for your reader who is looking to volunteer:

Consider volunteering with a program that teaches English as a Second Language, or with a program that helps settle new immigrants. Some of these programs are run by local religious groups; but there are also non-religious groups such as Literacy Volunteers or private or public schools that offer services which help new immigrants, family by family.

Or, volunteer with a culturally-oriented annual street festival or parade. Make it a point to go to dance or music presentations by international groups looking to preserve or show their national heritages. Often these are inexpensive local performances, and they can be great places to meet and network with others.

Sometimes starting small–say, just helping just a few immigrants get settled and integrate in American life–can give you new connections and ideas for practical ways to do more.

I admit that I’m partial. I run a program teaching English as a Second Language, free of charge, upstate. But, I suggest that expanding your horizons to help existing immigrants and getting to know the details of their complex struggles may be the exact key to figuring out how you can do more about whatever aims you choose to pursue.

An anecdote: Where I went to grad school in Chicago, there was a cheap dive restaurant hangout loftily called The Valois. If you wanted to eat there, you picked up a tray and went through the line, with all the food visible and with the cooks visible just behind that. On the rundown brick side of their building, they had a big painted logo that read, “See Your Food.” The logo was simultaneously understood as a reality in advertising for the poorest clientele–which frankly, we grad students often were!–and as a pithily ironic admonition amongst the grad students who occasionally ate there. If you are studying something, if you want to make a contribution, you cannot do better than to start by knowing every iota about what you are studying: the details, the data, where and what everything is from the ground up. See your food.