Immigrants and the Safety Net
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 10th, 2008 4:28 am by HL
Immigrants and the Safety Net
The conservative economist Milton Friedman famously said, “You can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.” He was right. You can’t flood our labor markets with illegal workers paying little in taxes — and provide good government benefits for everyone. But perhaps the opposite is also true. Perhaps you can’t have open borders if you have a high level of benefits. That’s the case in Canada and much of Europe. Canada has a large immigration program and guaranteed health care for everyone, including foreigners who are legal residents. Canada does not tolerate illegal immigration. It can’t afford to extend its expensive benefits to people who don’t belong there.
