Praxis will hold its final event this semester on immigration with Alex Nowrasteh, who will be speaking on why “The best argument against immigration is still wrong” in Dow B at 7 p.m. on Nov. 16.
Nowrasteh is a leading expert on immigration at the Cato Institute with a master’s from the London School of Economics. Known for having a libertarian stance on immigration, he advocates for freer movement of peoples with less economic incentives for immigrants to receive welfare.
Praxis President junior Emma McCormick expressed her enthusiasm for bringing Nowrasteh to campus.
“We’re excited to bring him because he’s knowledgeable about the subject and has some name recognition,” McCormick said. “The topic of immigration itself is interesting because as economists, it’s something that there’s clear indicators based on economics about making decisions on immigration. On the wider campus it’s more disputed. So this is definitely a very debatable topic and we hope that people from all disciplines will come to learn more.”
Sophomore Christian Betz, who plans on majoring in political economy, said he will be going to the event without a firm stance on the debated issue.
“I’m going in order to learn and see what they have to say,” Betz said. “I’m not completely sold by either side of the immigration debate. I want to better understand their arguments and maybe arrive at a better understanding of what policy should be taken by the U.S. with regard to immigration.”
McCormick hopes the event will be the first step in a greater plan of action for students at Hillsdale.
“It’s hard to take action on certain things, and immigration is one of those frustrating topics because it’s such a political matter, and there’s so much butting of heads in D.C. that it’s really hard to affect change,” McCormick said. “The first step is understanding the arguments and then if people can learn from that, be able to take what they learned and not only come to a stronger understanding of what they believe, but also being able to debate people in other areas of life afterwards.”
