This is a short sample of the complete publication.
Summary
It is not the case that immigration controls must necessarily reduce Liberty. Of course they must reduce some liberties for some people, but they can more than compensate by adding to the liberties of many other people indefinitely into the future.
Social control is the foundation of true freedom. Without social control there is not Liberty but anarchy, a state in which only the powerful are free.
A neutral way of analysing controls and freedom is essential for dealing with this issue, and the concepts ‘Microfreedom' and ‘Macrofreedom' are suggested as the basis for such a method. Microfreedoms are the simple, neutral, and indivisible freedoms of specific individuals or groups in specific situations, and the notion of Macrofreedom represents the sum of the microfreedoms of any one of these individuals or groups at a particular time and place.
All population change must inevitably alter the mix and strength of the microfreedoms, and beyond a certain population size the new ones added will be decreasingly valuable, while those lost will be increasingly fundamental.
People arguing that immigration controls must reduce Liberty should be asked: ‘Which will reduce our macrofreedom (Liberty) most, further controls on immigration, or the immigration which will otherwise take place?' This is a complex and difficult question requiring a very careful analysis before a meaningful answer can be arrived at. Some pointers are now suggested:
Introductory Remarks
As a British student of population dynamics and individual liberty, I have keenly followed the persistent efforts of Senator Alan K. Simpson, Representative Romano L. Mazzoli, and, lately, Peter W. Rodino, Dan Lundgren, Edward Roybal, and Robert Smith to tighten U.S. immigration controls. My own country, one of the most densely populated in the world, does much heart searching on this same issue. What America decides to do may have profound implications for Europe and the world.