Theresa O’Connor

Liberalism, nationalism, and the immigration debate

Will on liberalism, nationalism, immigration, and guest-worker policy (emphasis mine):

My long-term aim regarding migration is the best feasible approximation of a single global labor market—a world in which people are free to travel the world in search of the most valued use for their skills. That this idea should seem shocking to some (most?) of us reveals how deeply-seated are our essentially illiberal nationalistic impulses. But there is nothing new here[…]

[This] conception of cosmopolitan liberalism almost got lost in the Cold War, during which cosmopolitan, internationalist ideals were largely ceded to the communists while liberalism rode out the red tide by tying itself defensively to nationalist feelings in those nations with a more or less liberal identity. The Cold War has been over for almost twenty years now. It is time to get back to the project of securing world peace through extending the scope of mutual cooperation.