Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Debate on Immigration is usually lacking in nuance, with advocates of "open borders" never baking in the cultural tensions that it would bring

Brian Caplan has some interesting thoughts on how we can increase "immigration" and yet maintain cultural homogeneity

An extract -

This is from a recent blog of his at this link

econlib.org/reflections-fr…

The main point is -

Sure. Countries should let in more people. But this process of "letting in" can be overtly racist. And that's OK

E.g. Spain can take in a lot more immigrants from Latin America, most of whom share a language as well as religion with majority of Spaniards (as well as strong ethnic bonds)

The US is of course ethnically much more diverse than Spain

But in its essence, US is a Western European outpost, with a strong affinity to England in particular in terms of culture (though German is the most common ethnicity)

So why can't US have a LOT more immigration from Western Europe, particularly UK - a country that is a good 25% poorer than US, while restricting immigration from other parts of the world like Asia and Africa, which culturally have less in common with the "mainstream" of US

This may not please the advocates of "diversity". But hey...the quest for diversity now is in the way of open borders

We can have a LOT more immigration if only it were restricted to races and cultures that have a LOT in common with the destination country

Similarly India can have an open door for Hindus from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Caribbean

The Caribbean islands can let their doors open to a lot more African immigration. A country like Barbados is a LOT richer than Sierra Leone

It is only the Muslim world which has sort of encouraged this.

E.g. We do see a lot of Muslims from elsewhere moving to UAE, Saudi. A good thing

Too many people on earth are chained by their geographic situation

And what prevents them from changing that "situation" are the barriers of culture

But this barrier is an artificial one. Most people can identify several countries whose cultures match theirs

This may seem racist to a lot of people.

But to my mind it is a pragmatic way of matching cultures to geography.

And liberating those who are born in the wrong geography so to speak

Those who believe race is overrated, and that racial differences fade away in a generation or two after immigration, are badly mistaken

Good example -

Indians and Africans in Caribbean islands

Most of the Indian population in Guyana, Trinidad moved there a good 100-150 years ago

Yet culturally they remain distinct from the rest of the Black population

The inter-mingling is limited, and the identity is distinct a good 4-5 generations after migration

The United States is cited as an exception to this. Isn't it a melting pot of races?

I say - not quite. The races that have mingled in the US are for the most part those of Western and Northern Europe.

Sure..no Anglo Saxon American has ever had qualms marrying a German American

But beyond that, the racial blocs remain distinct and fairly well defined.

The intermingling of races is much less than one is led to believe