Unfair Trade Practices and Immigration: A Call for Change

Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash

Preface

Like you, I have been befuddled by the immigration problems and the complete inability of our government to do anything to fix it. That made me think, and think, and think. Somewhere along there I wondered if there could be a connection between fair trade and immigration. Here are my thoughts.

Introduction

I'm neither an economist nor a sociologist, so take my questions for what they are worth. Our country is going crazy about immigration. Neither party seems to have the answer. However, I feel like we all may be missing the root of the problem.

What has been the effect on immigration of decades, if not centuries, of the United States trading unfairly with developing nations?

The USA has a significant power imbalance over our developing world trading partners. For example, when Tom Boyer goes to buy coffee from the grocery store, he can choose to buy Fair Trade coffee or any other coffee. But his natural inclination is to not buy the Fair Trade coffee, which was purchased at a living wage rate, because... it's so much more expensive than the other coffee. Let's assume this difference is the result of us using our trading power to depress the cost of coffee for our savings, to the detriment of the coffee growers. Over billions of transactions where the people of the USA save money, and the people of the developing country do not receive enough money to live above poverty, the USA becomes richer and the poor cannot get past poverty. The wealth disparity grows larger and larger.

The wealth disparity leads to many undesirable and unfair results. The developing country is less educated than it could be, leaving a populace more easily controlled by less than honest political leaders. Lack of wealth can lead to crime, unrest, and hopelessness. On the other hand, the USA is more prosperous, wealthier, and safer. As the wealth disparity increases, the people from the developing country don't feel they have a path to stability and wealth in their country of origin, and, naturally, they desire to immigrate from their country to the USA.

Perhaps this deluge of immigration is less the result of our country's success and more an indictment of its unfair trading practices that did not grant workers the fair wage needed to prosper in their homes.

If perhaps any of these ideas are accurate, should our immigration reform not include ways to begin to help those developing countries to... develop better?

• What if the US government used its power to encourage US companies to pay fair trade prices for goods and commodities from developing countries?
• What if we the people began to choose to have less in order to pay more for fair trade goods? 
• What if the US government negotiated trade agreements which gave less powerful trading partners the respect of reasonable pricing and terms?

The only talk I hear from Democrats and Republicans is about fixing the immigration problem inside our borders, but I think we need to do some hard work to get to the root of the problem. Intentionally lowering our standard of living for the benefit of unknown families in unknown countries is hard. It will take systemic changes through commitments by we the people and the government to begin to empower our trading partners so that their citizens have as much or more hope in their countries of origin.

I'm always interested in you thoughts; please comment below.