I’ve always wondered about “free trade” and free traders: do they believe free and open and unrestrictd markets should extend to the labor market, as well?
Not really, it’s too complicated: in terms of blackboard theory, a NAFTA-like “free trade in labor” agreement would allow anyone from the U.S. to work in Mexico, and vice versa. But, as Milton Friedman pointed out, the benefits (just take unemployment compensation as an example) you would receive would have to be equal. Seeing that such a thing probably never will become the case, “free trade” in labor is impossible to achieve.