George Will has been scorned as being a paleo-libertarian with a Goldwater fetish and even I admit he writing comes off as overly-erudite. I would argue that despite these negatives, he still is a valuable voice for libertarianism. In particular, I wanted to the ideas presented in his latest column in the Washington Post.

He starts his column highlighting the importance of border security for a number of social, political and securiy reasons, but then couples it with a truely libertarian immigration policy:

Facts, a conservative (John Adams) said, are stubborn things, and regarding immigration, true conservatives take their bearings from facts such as those in the preceding paragraph. Conservatives should want, as the president proposes, a guest worker program to supply what the U.S. economy demands -- immigrant labor for entry-level jobs. Conservatives should favor a policy of encouraging unlimited immigration by educated people with math, engineering, technology or science skills that America's education system is not sufficiently supplying.

I have to say I can't agree more. Borders are inherently political constructions that serve a multitude of purposes. They provide the most basic form of national security, buttress the national work environment, and define the limits of sovereignty. Politics often have little to do with market forces and as a result, borders are also given to creating distortions in regional (and global) labor markets. One main problem with the politics of immigration is that it doesn't look at the role of human capital in its totality.

Most assume that immigrants come to the US to become "employees" and not "employers" - which, to be fair, is the case now since it hard to start a business if you are here illegally. This approach confines its gaze to how immigration shifts the labor demand curve. The problem is that immigration's real contribution to an economy is that it moves the production possibilities frontier outward. So even immigration decreases wages or increases unemployment, it has a multiplicative growth effect in the mid to long-term. Again, Mr. Will:

Urban immigrant communities, with their support networks, are magnets for immigrants. Good. Investor's Business Daily reports a new study demonstrating that "over the past 30 years rising immigration led to higher wages for U.S.-born workers. Cities that served as migrant magnets did better than others. Why? Hiring one worker creates wealth with which to hire more workers."

In addition, immigrants improve unemployment in the long-term by becoming employers and capitalists. Politicians appear to be preoccupied with the fate of American's with a high school degree or less to notice the high demand for individuals with graduate-level education. Bringing in immigrants armed advanced degrees doesn't effect the employment rate of doctors, educators, engineers, computer scientists. No one worries about the threat of immigrants with MBAs because they end up creating starting firms and hiring employees. Bill Gates's low-key visit to Capitol Hill last two weeks ago to lobby for an increase in the H-1B visa quota (currently 65,000) is emblematic of Washington's political blindness.

This could be a crucial issue for libertarians to exploit in 2006. Not only does it put us soldily in the Democratic camp, it can also change the terms of the immigration debate if articulated correctly. My idea for libertarian immigration reform would be a comphrensive package that includes improved border security, something like the Kennedy-McCain "earned citizenship" package for illegal immigrants current in country, and a liberalized visa and immigration policy for incoming immigrants.

The first two are fairly self-explanatory, but I wanted to flesh out the third policy for debate purposes. First, all foreigners seeking a 4-year college degree or higher should be offered a green card upon graduation. This would not include exchange students, but the exchange student visa should also be changed to allow foreign students to work off-campus if they choose.

Second, all work visas should have unlimited renewals. If you found a job in the US before you arrived and remain employed, you have the right to stay. Forcing foreign workers to return to their home country every 2-6 years is more of a hassle than a help. Foreign workers should also be offered a green card if their work visa has been renewed 4-5 times or 8-10 years, which ever comes first.

That is all I can think of right now. I would like my fellow bloggers to throw in their two cents about immigration policy or contribute additional reform ideas. This may be a chance for us to put together that policy paper we have been discussing since the fall.