While personally I am generally for both free markets and open borders I think most people make these judgements based on their understanding of their own self-

While personally I am generally for both free markets and open borders I think most people make these judgements based on their understanding of their own self-interest - as they probably should. Depending on your specific situation you can easily be for both of these seemingly contradictory positions. Imagine you are an electrician working on a foreign funded construction project. Your pay comes from foreign investment while your wage rate is boosted by reduced competition from foreign workers. Or imagine you are a politician who is supported by multinational manufacturers and investors but know immigrants don't tend to vote for you. I bet you will be pro-free market and anti-immigration (and your opponents will hold the opposite views). Or imagine you run a US based tech business with international ambitions. You will likely be for free international investment and more immigration for high tech workers. I find it much more useful to try to understand people's incentives than their professed philosophy if you want to explain their behavior. While people hold all kinds of views about things that don't directly affect them. Philosophy often gets left behind when it's implications start to actually matter to them.