If anyone is really in favor of free trade and free markets they’d support this totally. Free markets and free trade cannot exist unless labor is just as free to move as capital, entrepreneurship, technology and other factors of production.
I don’t favor the free movement of labor, but unless one does support it, then they don’t really support free trade and free markets. And that’s also why we should not pretend we have free trade, or free markets (internationally), because the bastardized arrangements we’ve ended up with most always benefit our trading partners to our detriment.
Free trade and free markets do not necessarily go hand in hand. Nations have borders. This “free movement of labor” business is based in leftism; I suggest rejecting it, especially since it undermines national security.
Not really.
With all of the differing social compacts and levels of welfare and social support provided by just the countries in NAFTA, free labor movement is not practical. Americans would be footing the bill for a hundred million poor and ill-educated peasants to live American lifestyles, and we simply can’t afford that.
Protecting borders is a fundamental and historical aspect of nationhood, which doesn’t preclude supported free trade, where possible, between countries.