"although I know that according to economic theory freedom including the freedom to migrate would allow greater efficiency and wealth for all" More likely it j

"although I know that according to economic theory freedom including the freedom to migrate would allow greater efficiency and wealth for all" More likely it just pits the most vulnerable against each other in a race to the bottom, and gives those with power in the system even greater power. The argument from 'economic freedom' or 'liberal democrat' types is that the system would be more efficient overall, which might be true - but it's not very good at the 'distribution of surpluses' problem. We have plenty of productivity in the world, the struggle is how to get it spread around fairly. The answer to the 'economic desperation migration' problem mostly has to do with solving the host of problems from whence these people have come. Surely there will always be calamity causing a bump in migration, just as surely as regular migration will go on (regular ex-pats changing jobs, getting married to someone from another country etc.) ... but the 'greatest good' will definitely surround getting dysfunctional places to be somewhat more functional. Also, once countries reach ballpark parity with one another, the rate of migration normalizes quite a lot, to numbers that nobody is going to be bothered about and there'll be nothing to get all populist about. But the law itself is ridiculous ... for a so-called populist government ... this must be one of the most utterly 'un-populist' concepts imaginable. This would be political suicide in any country, any regime, and flag, any political stripe. Truly what were they thinking? Edit: for some numbers: Italy has over 5 million foreign nationals residing there (8.3% of the population), the largest group among them are Romanians. Italy has also received 700 000 irregular migrants (only those that are counted) from the Med. [1] They have an unemployment rate of 11%. Spain has also about 5 million for a total of 10% [2] of the population and a whopping 20% unemployment rate. When unemployment rates are high and the economy is unable to absorb newcomers, supply and demand dictates that labour market will be favourable to employers, ie downward pressure on wages, with the surpluses going either to consumers, or the company/investors. Aside from some possibly lower prices for people in the middle and upper classes, and better returns in their portfolios (!), a reasonable economic argument for all of this can't be made 'in the name of freedom'. [1] https://www.thelocal.it/20180612/immigration-to-italy-numbers https://www.thelocal.it/20180612/immigration-to-italy-number... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Spain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Spain