RA: Immigration “Economic and Moral Factors in Favor of Open Immigration”

Target Audience: Students in attendance at the Santa Clara Student Debate Conference

Alexander Tabarrok put forth numerous ideas in support of open immigration, beginning his argument by citing a group of well known economists who all agree that immigration helps a country more than hurts it. Tabarrok holds a lot of authority as he is most likely a teacher of the students he is addressing. He touches on a lot of issues that are brought up by the opposition. He spends a lot of time meeting these arguments head on with logical thought but doesn’t provide much authority rather than his own methodology and a few quotes. One example of this is that he states that immigrants use less of the welfare system than do natives. While he provides a link to a study done on this, he does not include any hard evidence in his papers. This seems like it would be sufficient to his audience of students who hold him in respect but certainly not for another audience. Tabarrok’s tone appears slightly condescending to the audience as he implies that those who don’t agree with him are illogical and immoral. He appeals to the audience’s emotional side saying that the US failed to help those immigrants who came as a result of the holocaust due to stringent immigration restrictions. Thus, such barriers are seen to foster world wide suffering. Tabarrok uses much Christian phraseology and citation, which would be well with his target audience.