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Three Thoughts on Immigration and the Welfare State

Take sure wins even if they might cause theoretical losses

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Richard Hanania
Nov 15, 2026

A common argument goes that if you’re a conservative or libertarian, you shouldn’t support large-scale immigration because people will come to your country in order to mooch off welfare, and maybe vote themselves benefits too.

The structure of this argument is “Don’t do X, which expands liberty, because it might lead to Y, which would restrict liberty.”

But there’s nothing special about immigration and the welfare state here. Nearly anything liberty-enhancing could logically lead to an outcome that is liberty-contracting.

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