Stephan Faris

“On average, a Nigerian working in Nigeria earned one-fifteenth as much as a comparably skilled Nigerian working in America. Indian workers living in India did slightly better, earning about a sixth of what an equally skilled co-national did in the United States. Workers from Mexico multiplied their income 2.4 times simply by stepping across the border. Guatemalans who made the trip tripled their paycheck. Haitians who moved to the United States saw a tenfold jump in earnings.”
― Stephan Faris, Homelands: The Case for Open Immigration

“We’re countries that have constitutions that put humans and human rights above everything else, countries that have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But we don’t realize that the holocaust of today is determined by our laws, that this is the effect of the policies we’ve put in place to defend our fortresses.” She lit another cigarette. “What do I tell my little niece when she asks me, ‘Why did they die?’” she said. “I tell her it’s because they came from far away. They were on a boat that wasn’t safe. And then she asks me, ‘Why didn’t they take a plane?’ It’s hard to explain to a little girl why we didn’t let them take a plane.”
― Stephan Faris, Homelands: The Case for Open Immigration