Politicians Are Builders (of Walls)

From the Great Wall of China to the Berlin Wall, the world is full of barriers to keep out invaders, terrorists, drug traffickers and immigrants. There are customs barriers to “protect strategic industries,” and visas and passports are required in order to leave or enter any country.

These are all political constructions that impede the natural mixing of people and do damage to peace. It could not be any other way, since states enforce these barriers with their “authority”— that is to say, their monopoly on violence. And violence, as we know, is always destructive.

Perhaps the most ironic barriers are those that impede entry into the “land of the free,” the high-tech fence that the U.S. began constructing on the Mexican border to try to slow down immigration which — ironically — increased, demonstrating that prohibitions on liberty have a short reach, until the economic crisis caused the immigrants to slow down.

A few years back Bush signed off on the construction of a 1,200 kilometer [745.65 mile]-long wall along various sections of the Mexican border at a cost of $6 billion. This reminds me of the Berlin Wall and of those who died trying to cross it. The number of immigrants who die each year trying to enter the U.S. is now up to 400, mostly from exhaustion in the desert, compared to about 240 deaths in 1999.

The number of “illegals” crossing over from Mexico is increasing in the two months that remain before Arizona’s new law takes effect. During 2009, the state of Arizona spent $2.7 billion catching “illegals,” and the number of arrests have increased by 6 percent in 2010, compared to a decrease of 9 percent in the other border states.

Now Obama, pressured by Republicans, is sending 1,200 National Guards Troops to the border zone. Republicans were trying for at least 6,000, and they are also asking for $500 million for border protection and policing.

According to the U.N., there are 200 million immigrants in the world, and the U.S. has the greatest number with 40 million (20 percent of global migration), followed by Russia with 13.3 million and Germany, with 7.3 million. At this rate, minorities, which today make up one-third of the population of the world’s most powerful country, will constitute 54 percent in 2050. The Hispanic population, which today constitutes 15 percent, will nearly triple from 46.7 million in 2008 to 132.8 million — 30 percent of the total population. The African American population will increase slightly, from 14 percent today (41.1 million) to 15 percent (65.7 million) in 2050.

It turns out that remittances sent by immigrants are a major source of foreign capital for some countries, in some cases second only to direct investment. Mexico is the country that receives the most in remittances (around $14 billion dollars per year). They comprise 13 percent of GDP for El Salvador, 12 percent for the Dominican Republic and 10 percent for Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In total, remittances to Latin America come to approximately $40 billion per year.

Thus, human mobility can be a decisive factor in global economic expansion, poverty reduction and the financing of peace. This mobility gives the lie to populist demagoguery, since the immigrants leave countries where markets suffer from strong interventionism (“protections”) and go to countries where there is more respect for personal freedom.

According to the World Economic Forum, famous for its meetings in Davos, Switzerland, in a ranking of 125 countries, Singapore is the least “protectionist,” followed by Hong Kong, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway, Canada, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Chile is the best in Latin America, ranked number 18 worldwide, while the countries who are net exporters of migrants rank near the bottom: Brazil 87, Colombia 91, Argentina 95, Bolivia 98 and Venezuela 121.

So, the message to politicians should be clear: Stop “defending” us; violence only serves to destroy.