Global Integration

Countries like the US and (collectively) the EU must choose between greater global integration or segregation. In the US, this debate is manifest in the dispute surrounding the border with Mexico.

As the US has prospered over the past few decades, moving poor folks out of the fields and into the cities, agricultural (as well as many service jobs such as restaurant cooks) have become available to foreign labor. The workers have typically been immigrants from Latin America, who travel from or through Mexico, cross the southern border of the US and take up residency or employment somewhere in the states. They sometimes have permission to work and sometimes not. They sometimes have permission to stay, but sometimes not.

Overall, however, the influx of Latin labor to the US is a positive thing...when the economy is booming. Cheap labor flows in to prevent backlogs in production or harvesting. US producers can maintain inexpensive production of goods. The American workforce has stepped into higher paying jobs. And wealth flows from a surplus country to many with deficits. Reward is reaped by everyone, with the most stress going to those individuals who leave their countries to come to the US to do backbreaking work so they can send money home to their families.

The real problem, of course, comes when the economy slows, and we are unable to shift labor down into the agricultural or service jobs occupied by foreign labor. A variety of factors contribute to this inadequacy. First, people who have grown comfortable with a particular quality of life have a very difficult time, socially and financially, transitioning to work that is more physically demanding and pays less. Second, businesses have an incentive to maintain employment of experienced foreign labor rather than transition to inexperienced domestic labor. They know domestic labor will not generally be satisfied with the demands and compensation of the job. A training investment in these individuals would yield little return as they would seek  different employment (i.e. office job) as soon as possible (when the economy improves). Next, foreign workers who have overstayed their visa and are now "illegal immigrants" have an incentive to maintain employment and avoid crossing the border again. This last part gets a bit fuzzy as I am not super familiar with immigration laws and foreign worker permits and statistics on the incentives of people crossing the border illegally.

Suffice it to say that we already have a modest system where labor moves around the globe, in some places more than others. The question remains, do we seek further integration of that system, or further isolation of individual countries. I feel there can be no doubt that we must favor further integration. A global community. We can do this only if we transition from a nationalist sentiment to a global consciousness. We must begin the tremendously burdensome step of global planning and integration now. Because it will take decades to work out. Who will do what, where, and how. Why we will  do things. We have six billion examples of how people are fundamentally the same. Everyone must have a part in the world. A purpose. And everyone must feel loved.