Not so long ago, there was a near consensus that immigration systems in democratic destination countries would continue to liberalize. The Cold War was over, and once the Berlin Wall fell, all barriers were expected to follow. Immigration, it was thought, offered concentrated benefits to powerful voting blocs — business owners in search of both high-skilled and low-skilled labor, and ascendant immigrants seeking to reunite with family members. Any costs from immigration, it was thought, were diffusely spread among the native-born working classes, who might be made uncomfortable by foreigners but would not actually experience any attributable loss in income.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 24, 2019 10:06 UTC